


She-Ra: Princess of Power Headcannon Season 1

by EKWolf2020



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018), She-Ra: Princess Of Power (1985)
Genre: Adults, Alliances, Brainwashing, Character Death, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Family Issues, Family Loss, Fights, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Brainwashing, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, M/M, Minor Original Character(s), Multi, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Psychic Bond, Rebellion, Teenage Rebellion, Teenagers, War, Young Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-03-27
Packaged: 2019-11-06 15:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 36,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17942399
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EKWolf2020/pseuds/EKWolf2020
Summary: In an alternate world of Etheria, a young girl named Adora is raised to be the perfect soldier to fight for the Fright Zone. However, everything changes when she finds a mighty sword that allows her to tap into untold powers. Now, she must learn who she is and how to control the forces of one of the universe's mightiest hero: She-Ra.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I want to be very clear about this one as I feel like this is critical to keep in mind: This is only a head-cannon episode! This writing is not to mock or replace the 2018 She-Ra, but more about changing a few things around as well as adding to the show in ways that I thought would have been cool to see in this show. This will have elements from both the original She-Ra as well as the 2018 She-Ra, but a heavily rewritten version of the recent She-Ra as I did not get a chance to watch the 1985 She-Ra outside of Youtube Clips and reviews. 
> 
> Again, this is just head-cannon, if you like either She-Ra more than the other, that is fine. I just wanted to throw my interpretation out there and see what people think. I want to hear other people's opinion about this interpretation as well as critics of it. Please do not attack other people over which one is better as I want to listen to every idea or comment out there. 
> 
> Otherwise, if you all like this and want me to continue, please let me know in the comments below. Enjoy and look forward to your comments.

-

Episode 1

“A long, long time ago, the land of Etheria was settled by those who called themselves the First Ones. They were said to be the ones that gave life to this land as they came from the stars to hide away from the destruction of their home planet. They fused the land with their technology and secrets to ensure that it would remain safe for their descendants when they moved on. To ensure Etheria’s safety, they placed Runes, stones of untold and untapped power, at different parts to the world to ensure that if one were to fall, the rest would protect Etheria in its’ darkest hour. However, the runes were not invulnerable to disaster, as the First Ones knew this mistake from their homeworld, so they entrusted fourteen of their best warriors to be guardians of the Runes to ensure they would never fall into the wrong hands. These warriors formed bonds to the Runes so that their descendants will continue to protect the legacy of the Rune Guardians.” 

“But to ensure the guardians were protected to keep the balance as well, the First ones then decided they needed someone to defend the guardians and maintain the peace. So, with the forging of a pact with their most sacred of treasure from their homeworld, a young female warrior of the new Etheria stepped forward. And, by holding the Sword of Protection in her grasp, chanting the ancient words of the First ones, she became known as She-Ra, Champion, and defender of Etheria.”

“What are the ancient words?” peeped a young child. Glancing over to the voice, a female cadet captain that was telling the story to a room of children of all shapes and sizes when she sees a young Adora, curiosity filled her gaze at the cadet captain and squeezing the pillow in her arms. She smiled as she was in her bed, looking eager to hear the answer to her question. 

The young cadet captain paused then chuckles with a shrug and smile. “No one knows, the translation of the words got lost some time ago. No one knows the answer. Some variations tell of the sword being able to connect to the warrior mentally so the words cannot be given away. Per told by the First Ones.”

“Oh,” Adora said as she looked a bit sad but still interested. 

“Enough, already, get to the good part where she would slash all the evildoers with her mighty sword!” Clamored the young girl that had wild hair and cat ears, practically begging for more. She leaned over the foot of the same bed the young Adora was sitting, also seeming to get closer to the cadet captain to get her attention. The other young children in the bunker smiled as they looked eager to hear more as well, howling and trying to out talk one another. 

The young cadet captain smiled as she nodded and raised her hands.

“Okay, okay, I was about to get to it,” she stated as she cleared her voice a little, all their eyes were on her. “Then, with her mighty sword of power, She-Ra was said to have slain monsters the size of mountains. In one legend, She-Ra could crack mighty Snow Kingdom’s mountain in two when she stopped a band of Ice monsters from attacking. Even defending the Fright zone with one strike of her sword to keep away the scary queen of the Bright Moon shire, telling her ‘Begone, evil queen! You are trespassing on our sacred land and never return!’ And to this day, her legend lives on.”

The children looked at the cadet captain in awe from her story, even looking excited to hear more. But before they could say anything, the door to their bunker opened, and everyone turned silent. A looming figure in red stood at the foot of it, hovering over the ground as if taking on a ghostly appearance. Black hair waving in the air as she hovered into the room looked like snakes watching over the children as it made sense that they could never truly see her face behind the beautiful mask she wore. They quivered in her presences as they knew that this woman was a dangerous person. But the cadet captain stood tall and forward on she saluted the woman. 

“Well Cadet Captain,” the woman said, her voice sounded calm, but Adora could hear a bit of a disappointment in her tone, “I hope you can explain to me what it is you are doing in our young recruits bunker this late into the night.” Her words sent chills down Adora’s spine as she did not like seeing this side of the woman. 

“My apologies, Shadow Weaver, I was telling the young ones a story, ma'am. I felt it was natural to give the young recruits something to look forward since this is their first night in the bunkers,” she said in a calm voice, unwavered by the woman’s harsh undertones. Adora and Catra both watch admiration as she stood tall.

Shadow Weaver scoffed at the cadet captain. “Another one of those silly legends of She-Ra, I assume.” 

“Yes, ma'am. I-”

The action was quick as the lady could not defend from it. The children winced in fear and hesitation as they felt the pain that cadet might have felt as Shadow Weaver slapped her cheek. The cadet captain stood still as she let the pain sit in and Shadow Weaver as looming more over her. 

“Those pathetic legends are nothing more than just lies that the people have created to give themselves hope. She-Ra, how absurd. If she were meant to defend the world, she would be here now. Not just a legend that you tell children at night!” She glances to the children in their bed. “Listen well, my young recruits. The name of She-Ra is nothing to be taken seriously. She is a myth. Fantasy, never forget it. Nothing you want in life will come to you freely. Work hard and prove your worth!” Her voice echoed the room as everyone watches and nods. 

Catra and Adora nod but they look down to avoid looking at her gaze. Shadow Weaver sees this as she hovered over to their beds. “Do I make myself clear, Adora and Carta?” Her voice hissed with the sound of snakes right in their faces. Both Catra and Adroa nod as they looked at her directly.

“Good, now back to your post soldier!” She ordered the cadet captain and left the room turning the lights off. The children turn to each other for a second they all went to sleep. But the cadet stood there as she gripped her fist to hold back the tears. Adora and Catra turned back to her to see the lady shaking from the experience. She was trying to be strong but could not help but shake a little from her frustration. 

The cadet captain inhaled deeply and began walking out. Catra climbed up to her bed above Adora and lied down as she tried to get some sleep, and push away the fear she felt from Shadow Weaver that was present in her mind. But Adora watches the cadet leaving and managed to get out of the bed and take her hand. The cadet was surprised as she looked down at Adora with water in her eyes. 

Still upset about what had transpired, Adora whispers to her with a lisp “Is She-Ra really a myth?”

The cadet captain was stunned by this young girl’s question, and how sincere it was to know if it was true, she smiled and kneeled to Adora. “It shouldn’t matter if others say it is real or not, it only matters if you believe in it. Believe in She-Ra and what she means to you.” 

“So, anyone could be She-Ra?” Adora sounded so innocent and hopeful. 

Smiling softly and patted her head, the cadet looked at her with content “Anyone,” she said as she stood back up. 

Turning away from Adora, the lady left with the light of the hallway illuminating her silhouette upon Adora. Watching her leave as her eyes adjusted to the light, Adora gasps silently, for a second, the cadet looked as though her uniform transformed. Instead of the standard red top and black pants, it looked as though she wore a cape of red that flowed heavenly with each step. Her hair was blonde like the radiant sun as two gold wings looked like it was forming a crown on her head as it glinted light off of it. Adorning white boots gold rims that sparkled as the hallway light hit it, Adora felt like she was watching a vision of an angel glide away into the outside world. For that moment, Adora felt something spark inside her. 

But the moment was gone as the door closed, leaving Adora confused about what she saw and what this feeling was inside of her. Crawling back to bed, she sighed and tried to get some sleep, closing her eyes forcefully.

Back to the present as Adora wakes up and then sits up in her bed. She has grown up much since that time, but she groans a little.

“That memory again, huh?” she muttered to herself. “How many years has it been?” she asks as she looks at the foot of her bed. Looking around as she felt nothing at her feet, she shrugs and begins getting ready for the day. 

Once she was in the locker room, she strapped on her training gear, pulled her light blonde hair into a ponytail and then put on her headgear. Putting on her belt, she checked if her laser gun was still in and fully fuelled. After putting on her chest gear and holographic training shield bracelets, she took a moment of self-satisfaction of how prepared she was and about to head out. Stopping in front of a mirror, she went to check her breath then quickly brushes her teeth as she smirks a little. Out of the corner of her eye, she sees a picture of a sinister shadow looking down on innocent Horde soldiers on a punching bag. Her smile then turns into a scowl as she walked up to it. 

“Think you are better than us because you are a princess? Huh?” She asked the picture before punching it hard. The bag swayed from the punch as she smirked. “Didn’t think so.”

A bell rung as it caused her to come back to and she hurried out to the training deck. Only a few other cadets were standing beside her as they waited for the instructor. Looking between the other cadets, Adora gets a bit anxious for her. “Has anyone seen Catra?” 

“No idea,” a lizard man said to her. 

“Maybe she went off to catch a mouse.” A girl next to Adora named Lonnie said as she scoffed.

Adora glared at her but then straightened up and listened to the training captain coming in as he looks to them with a scowl. He was a beastly looking man as he stood taller than the lizard man that Adroa stood next too. No pupils were visible to her, but you could feel he was still staring down at you because his snout was large and pointed right at them if he was focusing on one particular person. Spikes covered his body as he stood with an electronic file in hand, but they stiffen up when he sees Catra was not present. 

“Where is cadet Catra?” he ordered for an answer as the cadets all flinched, his low voice was thick enough that it might have caused the ground to shake. 

Adroa stood tall as she looked out of the corner of her eye at the other cadets. The lizardman looked straight on, not flinching at all. Adora looked to Lonnie as she saw a smirk her face, pleased that Catra was running late. 

“Well?” ordered that training captain.

Adora looked at him. “She is running late sir, but I am sure she will join us when she can.”

He looms over Adora and then lowers his head to meet hers. Staring straight into his blank eyes, Adroa did not waver. “She better, or else you all will be doing laps around the sky area for a month from lunch till dusk. You hear me cadet?” he said to her, the undertones in his voice were threatening, and his breath was vile as Adora could tell he did not care for hygiene. But she swallows down her fear a little as she nods. 

“Affirmative, sir,” she said back.

“Good. Now, listen up,” he said as he stood back up and pulled up the file for their training. “This is your examination course, so pay attention as I will only say this once. New Intel tells us of one of the princesses have been spotted in the Whispering Woods. Over the past week, we have sent in soldiers to look into the matter and never came back, leading us to believe that the princesses and the Queen of Bright Moon are beginning to take prisoners. Your mission is to go through the Whispering Woods, get to the Bright Moon, and determine the location of the center of operation. Also, if you happen to find any princesses or the Queen, you are to take them out by any means necessary. For this mission, I am placing cadet Adora as proxy captain to lead this simulation. Your ability to lead your team through the Whispering Woods through the parrel will affect your ranking. That goes for everyone. Do what you have to finish. Understood?”

“Yes Sir!” The cadets respond as they looked ready to start.

“Your test begins now.” He said as he stepped away and opened up the door into a simulation training room. All the cadets rush in as Adora takes the lead, not noticing a shadowy figure follows suit. She presses a button on her headgear as it simulates a wood like surroundings. Adora then looks around, raising a hand to stop them. Pausing for a moment, Adora scanned the area as she saw on her headgear monitor, a red dot approached them. She motioned for the lizard man and the other male cadet beside him to move right as she motioned to Lonnie to follow her. Everyone nodded as they followed her lead, surrounding the red dot on their screen.

Adora, taking a higher position in a simulated tree, check to see if her teammates were in place. Once she got their cue, she signals for them to all jump the red dot. In their headgear, they could see a simulation of a princess as the dot itself was a robot. But the simulation was menacing and then tried to throw something close to a net at one of the teammates. Firing their laser at the simulated net, the male teammate managed able to avert getting caught, and the rest of the team got an opening and shot at the princess bot, and destroyed it. The lizardman and Lonnie were relaxed when they landed and felt satisfied by their action. However, when the male teammate fell, it looked terrified out of his mind about getting caught

They had no time to catch their breaths as Adora leads them away from the diseased bot and it simulated more red dots closing in on the source. They hurry on through the simulation, avoiding a sudden drop simulation as Adora pauses at the edge. The lizardman stops right after as he then caught his partner next to him from falling. He looks down in relief. Adora looked at him, annoyed with his panicked expression. “Seriously Kyle, focus.”

“Sorry, but, that was was scary. I thought I saw my life flash before my very eyes.” He said as he looked still freaked out.

“Suck it up Kyle, be lucky that they needed more senior recruits, so they kept you on and did not send you to the factories!” Lonnie hissed as she looked annoyed at him. 

“Everyone, calm down, we have a job to do.” The Lizardman spoke stoically to them as he looked to Adora. “What is the next part of the plan?”

“Right, we go down and press on, we have about a minutes before those bots find us.” Adora observed as she then jumps down the simulated cliff and onto a bar acting as a tree limb. The rest of the team follows but they are unaware of another figure following behind and manages to stay out of sight. But Adora did hear the figure landing as she looked back and around. Lonnie looked to Adora with concern.

“Everything okay?” She asks.

“Yeah, just thought I heard something,” She said as she looked back on the monitor then looked annoyed. “Crap. It looks like soldiers are closing around the center. That must be the target. We have to hurry.” She commanded as she jumps down and leads them closer. “Be ready to charge in!”

They enter the simulated opening of what looks like to be the center. It was surrounded by troop like simulations as they begin to center in on their team. Adora brought her holographic training shield up as the bots begin shooting at her. Her teammates followed her lead as they brought their shields up. But Kyle was too slow as he got shot in the chest by a laser and fell to the ground. They pause to look back, but it was too late as the ground opens under them and he falls into it. A tone rings in the area as an electronic voice speaks out. “Senior Cadet recruit Kyle has died on the battle.”

“Figures,” Lonnie scoffs and then chuckles with the Lizardman as he looks back. Adora looked annoyed but was able to regain focus as the shield was beginning to deteriorate from the hits of the laser. 

“Focus now. Alright, we have to break formation and hit them from both sides again, you two split off from the formation, I will draw them off,” she commanded them.

They looked to her and nodded as they broke off and began trying to get around the firing squad. Adora looks forward as she sees the bots and then pulled her gun out. She begins firing and charges head-on. In a split second, after all of the shots fired, Adora brought her shield down and slid under the bots. After getting behind them, she fires off round in a circle around her and hits all of the robots. They combust from the shots as she looks ready to take on more. 

She looks over to her teammates as she sees the lizard man is handling himself fine but saw that Lonnie was struggling. Adora rushes over as she shoots at some of the robots to draw them away. Lonnie gets an opening as the robots look over to Adora and she manages to get in a shot. Coming up to her, Adora looks to her. 

“You, okay?” She asks.

“Yeah, I - Look out!” She said as she forced Adora down with her as they get attacked by more robots. Adora looks up and then tried to take a shot but then in that split second, a shadowy figure falls, and the sound of tearing metal is echoing the room. The robots fall as they get brought down one by one. When Adora got a second to get her bearings, she looks at the figure and begins to make out who it was. 

Standing tall and with cockiness in her stance, a young woman looks down at them with a smirk on her face. Her wild black hair is pulled back in a headband but gives enough space for her cat-like ears to be visible. Her fingers were covered with metallic claw gear as she flexed her fingers and seemed just to be warming up. Her tail had some gear on with a golden spike at the end as she flicked it with ease as she strutted over to Adora. Although she was wearing her chest armor, her red jumpsuit differed from the suit that the other cadets wore, and Adroa knew right away who it was. 

“You sure know how to make an entrance, Catra,” she said as she got up a little. 

Catra smiles as she then reached down and pulled her up. “I just do my own thing.” She said as she smirks and her tail does a little flick to show happiness.

“Hey, you two get down!” Lonnie yells at them to bring them back in the moments. “More troops!” 

Adora and Catra look over then took cover in some debris as with the female teammate. They look over to see that the Lizardman overpowered and the announcer states that he was forced into a howl and disappeared. Adora looks frustrated.

“Damn, we are getting picked off one by one here.”

Catra looks at her then looks around. “Hey, this might be crazy, but I have an idea.”

“Oh no, I don’t want to hear it from you!” Lonnie said as she looked done with Catra’s actions. “If you were with us the whole time, how come you didn’t do anything?”

“Well sorry if I am just a bit more stealthy than everyone else. Ever heard of the element of surprise?” Catra wittingly replied.

This annoyed Lonnie even more. “Ever heard of being part of a team?”

“Enough both of you!” Adora said as she then looked to Catra. “Tell me your plan.” 

Catra looked to her and smiles. “Okay, on three, we jump out and then we run for it to the center. I go high, you go low, and you,” She said as she looked to the female girl. “You play as bait”

This infuriated Lonnie as she looked ready to punch Catra. But Adora nods. “Makes sense.”

“What!? Are you kidding me?!?”

“We both know I have a better shot than you, and with you two distracting the bots, I can take the shot on the queen. For the good of the mission.” Adora said as she had a serious look on her face. 

Seeing as there was no other way, Lonnie sighed and nodded to Adora. “For the good of the mission,” she said as she looked at her and saluted to Adora. Catra rolled her eyes as her ears then perked up and saw the bots were closing in. 

“It’s now or never,” Catra blurted out.

Adora nods as she looks over the debris they were hiding behind. “Alright, one, two, three, go!”

Lonnie runs away from the center as she shoots and tries to get their attention. Some of the bots follow pursuit, and she tries to get away.

Catra and Adroa shoot at the few that still pursued them, and they made their way to the larger bot that had a simulation of the Queen of Bright Moon. Though they could not take a moment to look at the figure, it’s shadowy smile was nothing compared to the sheer size of it. The shadow spread out its’ wing-like features before it began to shoot a different kind of blast than before. It was a bright light that seems to cause more destruction than the foot soldiers as it caused Adora and Catra to scatter. Adora looks to Catra after she began to shoot at the Queen. 

“Ready?”

“Ready!” she said as she then hurried to the other side. Adora shoots more as she distracted to Queen more and got behind her. As the Queen robot began to charge for an attack, Adora slides on the ground as Catra comes toward her. As she slides, Adora kicks up her legs and bends them. Catra leaps onto Adora’s feet, and Adora pushes her up into the air. Catra gains so much height from that liftoff of Adora and then uses her metallic claws to slash the Queen robot. 

As the robot screeched, it begins flailing and causing destruction. One of the robot’s legs comes close to where Adora was as she gasps and tries to dodge it. But the leg caused a piece of metal to break from the training simulator bars as it began to fall on top Catra. Adora looks up at this and gets up. “Catra, look out!”

Catra looks back as she used the bar falling as a basis for her to push off and land down on the ground away from the crumbling ground around the robot as it fell. While she enamored Catra, Adora failed to notice that the ground under her had turned red and fell apart. It all happened so fast as she suddenly began to fall into the room below. 

But suddenly, a hand with metallic claws grips her wrist as she winced and saw Catra on the other end. She looked severe then she smiles. 

“Always have to be watching out for me and never your own back,” the cockiness in Catra’s voice annoyed Adora, but she smiled at her.

“Only when you stop being so reckless and doing things on your own,” Adora said as she pulled herself up with some help from Catra.

“Please, I was only showing my skills. Nothing else to show off.”

“But you kinda did by not telling me you were hiding in the shadows. You had me worried that we were going to be doing laps for a month.”

“Pssh, please, like laps are the biggest things to worry about around here.” 

A tone goes off as it cuts off their conversation. “Training simulation complete. All senior recruits meet in the recover and review room.” A computerized voice said. Adora and Catra smile as they went on their way to the review room.

When they get to the room, their smiles disappear as they felt a chill in the air as well as see an all too familiar figure in the corner of the room, standing next to the training captain and gives off the air of dissatisfaction. Shadow Weaver looks over to Adora and Catra as her masked face could not hide the aura of anger and judgment behind it. 

“Glad you two could finally join us,” She said in a soft tone but it was clear that she was forcing herself to be pleasant. “Why don’t you both take a seat now?”

Adora and Catra nod as they take their seats as they try to avoid looking directly at her. Adora was calm as she did not let the feeling of being stared at getting to her. But Catra gives Shadow Weaver a glare as before looking at the Training captain as he clears his throat. 

“Now that everyone is here, let’s discuss what each of you did and where to improve upon.” He said he began to play the tape. As he begins to critic all of them, Lonnie for her skills needing some work and Lizard man’s strength was top more while he berated Kyle on his inability and cowardness of acting quicker, Adora and Catra waited patiently as they both could tell that they were meant to be last. 

The training captain looks to them as he stands over their desks and looks at each of them for a what felt like an eternity. His gaze finally lands on Adora as he seems to have calmed down. 

“Senior Cadet Adora,” he spoke sternly but some admiration in a way, “you have shown prominent skills as a leader for this simulation. You took the team you were given and acted as needed to reach your goal. With a few more training exercise and simulation, I can see you passing into Lorde Hordak’s higher ranks. You passed.” 

Adora looks at him with awe from his remarks as she then nods to acknowledge his words. “Thank you, sir.” 

Catra looked to Adora as she could tell something was on her friend's mind but was snapped back into reality as the training captain looked to Catra. “Now, Cadet Senior Catra, you have a long way to go from being a good leader for the Horde. You purposefully wait till the last minute until your team was destroyed to join the fray and needlessly destroyed part of our simulation room because you had to make that finishing move more dramatic.”

Catra looks at him straight on, but she was getting mad behind her eyes, clenching her fist tightly. Adora looks at her then raised her hand. “With all due respect sir, it was my call for her to do so. If anything I should share some blame in it.”

“I don’t care about who gets the blame,” he responded, “I want this cadet to remember that she is not the only one out there and if it was not for your reflexes, you could have had your team leader killed! So remember that, cadet!” He lowered his gaze to meet hers, “The next time you pull a stunt like that, better watch your mouth.”

Catra looks at him as she inhales sharply. “Understood sir.” 

He inhales as he stood up straight and then nods. “Good. Everyone is dismissed to leave.” He said. They all stood up as they saluted to the training captain and Shadow Weaver as they left the room. Lonnie, Kyle, and the lizardman then begin to walk out as they let out a groan and talk about the meeting. Leaving Adora and Catra alone in the room.  
Adora waits for a second as Catra had looked away and was shaking a little. Sensing she was upset, she puts a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, why not we go to the training room? Blow off some steam,” Adora suggests to her. 

Catra sighs as she looks back and nods. “Sure, whatever.”

Adora smiles a little.

“Argh!!” Catra said as she punched at a punching bag. Both Adora and Catra were in a large training room as they were the only ones in their class there. Some of the junior and fresh cadets were training in the background, but Catra could care less as she took all her anger out on the bag. “Just for once, can’t I get some praise? I mean, I was the one to take that freaking robot down! But I get nothing but disappointment!” 

Adora holds the bag in place as she let Catra go at it. “Well, it would have worked in your favor if you were there on time. They want you to be a bit more discipline.”

“Heh, fat chance of that. Even when I showed respect of that fat jerk, all he ever did was look at me like I was a wild animal!” 

“Maybe he saw that time that you chased a mouse?” Adora teased as she smirked at her.

Catra stops as she growled in frustration. “That was one time! One time! The medics said it was just a phase!” 

“Hehe, sure whatever you say,” Adora smiles as she looks at her cheerfully.

Catra was not amused as she then begins to punch again. “Whatever, I just wish people would start looking at me with some respect!” She yells as she then kicks the bag and causes Adora to be pushed back a little. Seeing her strength, Catra stopped as she looked to her and ran over.

“Oh geez, are you okay?” Her voice sound shook as she looks at her, helping Adora up.

“I’m fine. And that was some kick, glad to see these training sessions are paying off.” Adora smiles at her as she looked at her with some pride.

After seeing her smile, Catra then relaxes as she smiles. She then puts Adora in a playful headlock. “Don’t scare me like that!” She messes Adora’s hair, who was laughing and squirming out of her grasp. 

Their fun was cut short as they felt that aura of darkness come in again and causes the whole room to come to a standstill. All the younger cadets look terrified as they cower behind other bigger soldiers. But Catra and Adora just stood tall when they see Shadow Weaver entering the room. 

As Adora saluted her, Catra just stood there as she did not even look directly at Shadow Weaver, looking at the ceiling to keep her calm in check with her. 

“I see you two are enjoying some more training time. I expect nothing less from you, Adora,” She said as she sounded complimentary to her. 

Adora smiled a little. “Thank you, ma'am. But I am nothing compared to Catra. She has been getting a lot stronger than I have been able to.”

“Nonsense, I have seen that you have grown significantly since your younger days and I am glad to say you have come very far.”

“Of course you only pay attention to her,” Catra muttered under her breath. 

Shadow Weaver heard that as she then looks to Catra and then looms over her. “What was that, Catra?” 

“Nothing, Shadow Weaver.” Catra said as she continued to look away from her. 

Shadow Weaver grabs Catra by her jaw and makes her look into the eyes of her mask. Her hair begins to shift in and spiral out of control from rage as if she was insulted by Catra’s attitude. “You sure you want to deal with me, Catra?” Her voice was low, but it felt threatening. Everyone else besides Adora and Catra was fearing and standing in the wake of her aura surrounding them.

However, Catra looks at her as she nods and holds back her fears and wearing a neutral look on her face. “No, Shadow Weaver, I do not.” 

Soon as Catra said that, the aura coming out from her dispersed and the room begins to calm down again. Adora was worried, but she stood tall, biting her lips a little. Shadow Weaver lets go of Catra and turns to Adora. 

“Adora, get dressed and meet me in the review room,” She ordered.

Adora nods as she stood tall. “Yes, ma'am.”

Shadow Weaver leaves as she seemed satisfied with her answer. The training room resumes what it was doing as the recruits went about their training. 

Adora looks to Catra as she looked conflicted. But Catra shrugged her shoulders and nods. “Go on, better go before the Miss Bad Mood comes back” she encouraged her.

“You sure you will be okay?” Adora checks with her.

“Yeah. I’ll catch up with you soon.” She said as she smiled and elbowed her to go. 

Adora smiles and nods. “Meet you at our spot.” She said and headed to change into her regular uniform.

Catra watches as she smiled a second then her scowl comes back. She looks at the punching bag and stares at the bag. Walking up to it, she extended her claws then slashed it with one strike, causing it to tear open with ease. She pants a little as she looks on at it with anger before she then went on to get a new one up and set on the hook. 

A tall figure in the shadows was observing Catra for a while. Their most of their face covered in a black helmet, but their mouth was visible to show an interested smile their face before disappearing into the shadows completely. 

Standing beside a window looking over the scenery, Shadow Weaver was patient as she waited for Adora. Adora walks up to Shadow Weaver as she stood in attention beside her. “You wanted to speak with me, ma'am.” Adora sounds serious as she stood beside her, looking over the scenery as well. 

“Adora, you do not have to be so formal with me,” Shadow Weaver said in a low voice, it tried to come across as non-threatening, but it still had hostility in her tone. 

“I know, I feel it is important to be formal to you. You are the advisor to Lorde Hordak,” Adora said as she relaxed a little but was mindful of her words. She felt uneasy standing beside Shadow Weaver no matter how many times she called to discuss things with her. Adora always thought she would be better off training more with Catra.

“Excellent,” Shadow Weaver said, “you have grown much from your time in the bunkers. I am pleased to see how much you have progressed and how strong you have become. Even Lorde Hordak agrees with me.”

Adora’s eyes widen as she turned her head to her. “Lord Hordak thinks so?”

“Yes, so much so that he asked me personally to tell you the news of promoting you to Force Captain.” 

Adora looks shocked as she then relaxes a little. “Force Captain…. I.. this is a big honor. Does this mean that I will get to go out onto the field?”

“Of course, that simulation training today was a mock plan we have to invade a part of the Whispering Woods that has is now available due weeks of demolishing allowing us to finally regain land for the Fright Zone from these impudent princesses and their revolutionary forces. And your test today prove you are ready for this mission.”

“Oh, thank you, Shadow Weaver. This promotion is a big honor. I can’t wait to tell the rest of my team that -”

“Only you are being allowed to join the higher ranks. We have promoted you Force Captain to lead new crew cadets to allow us to infiltrate and take over that land”

Adora looked suddenly confused by this plan. “No disrespect Shadow Weaver, but I was not able to get where I was without the help of my team. We all deserve this chance to be promoted, to leave our training grounds and get out there to prove our worth.”

“And they will in time,” she said as she looks down to her. “Some will be able to join you shortly if they prove themselves.”

“But what about Catra? She might be a bit rough, but she has -”

“That child does not have what it takes to lead!” Shadow Weaver’s patience diminished as she raised her voice to Adora. Adora flinches as she stood straight and waited for the punishment. But then Shadow Weaver looks at her and puts a hand on her cheek.

“Understand this Adora, you are far different from Catra than you will ever know. You have so much more potential than you realize. And with my help,” she said as she then pulled a Force Captain pin out from her sleeve, “I can make you even greater than you could ever dream.” She put the pin in Adora’s hand as she looks down at it. 

Suddenly, they hear the sounds of an air ski coming in and carrying what looks to be people outside from the Fright Zone. 

Shadow Weaver gave a satisfied chuckle. “Looks like we have some more recruits for the upcoming war upon us..” The way she said that made Adora shiver with fear but she could not tell why. Shadow Weaver looks to Adora. “I must go, and you should begin preparing for your new position, Force Captain Adora. Dismissed.” 

Adora looks to her then straighten up. “Yes, ma’am.” 

Shadow Weaver leaves the other direction as Adora waited a moment as she looked down at the pin and then began making her way to the spot that she and Catra shared.

-

Meanwhile in Bright Moon shire, a young woman was standing nervously outside of the royal courtroom. Her light short cut purple hair bounced with her as she moved up and down by the knees. Her hands were folded behind her as she was fidgeting and looking anxious about this meeting she was about to have. The doors to the royal court open and a soldier look to her. 

“Princess Lieutenant Glimmer, the queen is ready to see you,” They said.

Glimmer glups a little as she took a deep breath then walked in. Holding her head high, she looked straight down the corridor and saw the royal throne of the Bright Moon.

-  
Standing before the queen, a general bowed to her then turned to leave. Walking down the same path toward the door, the general looks over at Glimmer and slows down a little. "She is in a good mood, but I would suggest not pushing it," she whispered to Glimmer.  
  
Glimmer glanced over at her then nods. "Thanks," she muttered as she walked up to the throne and the general walked out. Standing tall for a moment, Glimmer then bowed her head to the queen, glancing up at her occasionally.  
  
Sitting on her throne, Queen Angella looks regal as she adjusts a little, directing her attention to Glimmer. Her flowing floral colored hair shimmered in the light as a beautiful headdress kept it in place. Behind her, a pair of large, translucent wings tucked behind her back that made her look towering but still regal to all that saw them. Her face was slightly pale, but her angelic face made it hard to determine how she was feeling, making Glimmer anxious a little.  
  
"Lieutenant Glimmer, state your report," even Queen Angella's voice sounded regal.  
  
Glimmer swallows a little as she then stood up. "Yes, your majesty. This morning, when patrolling the outer rims of the Whispering Woods, we spotted a small crew of Horde soldiers using a new device to burn away at the forest. We managed to hold them off but..." Glimmer lingered before she tensed up.  
  
Queen Angella noticed this. She stood up as she looks to Glimmer with a shining but looming presence. "What happened?"  
  
Glimmer looks down as she gripped her hand tightly and bracing for the queen's anger. "We... were too late as when we got there, the base got overrun, and we lost some of our best members to the Horde snatchers and taken before we could save them. Two of my best soldiers taken away before I had the chance to save them, so I retreated."  
  
This news infuriated the queen even though her face was calm. She looks to the rest of the guards in the room. "Leave us. I have to talk with the lieutenant privately." Her voice was low and resonated in everyone in the room a sense of frustration and demanding presence. The guards and servants in the room all obey without hesitation as it was just now the queen and Glimmer in the large room. Glimmer stood still as she begins to feel all the emotions swelling in her.  
  
Queen Angella sighs as she then brings her hand to her head. "Honestly Glimmer, your job was simple. Scouting the woods, looking for First one's Tech, and reporting any advancement of the Horde. No attacking! We do not have the resources to fight against them fully."  
  
"But our scouts!"  
  
"Enough, Glimmer. We are teetering on the brink of war and running into each battle without a plan will not help us. We have to have faith in that She-Ra will come and settle this before it can even begin. But you running in and making a mess of this will not make it easier for us to plead our case!" 

“To what? To She-Ra? Mother, She-Ra is nothing but a fairy tale. Stories you use to tell me to sleep. If She was real, then why has she not come in to stop the Horde from attacking us? We need to take control of the chance to help our cause by –“

“By attack the Horde randomly and making us look more like the villains to the rest of the world! And you could have been captured as well. What would that be like?”  
  
"But I had it under control. I was going to teleport to get the scouts out of there while the others would distract them!"  
  
"And where are they now?!" Queen Angella yells as it caused the room to shake a little. Glimmer flinches as she tensed up and hold back her anger.  
  
Sensing her anger growing, Queen Angelica takes a deep breath and turns away. "As of now, I am keeping you here on the castle ground and put on Guard duty and three days of training sessions."  
  
Shooting her attention back up to her, Glimmer suddenly let out her frustration in a single burst. "But mom!"  
  
"Enough, now go to your room and prepare for training!" Angelica shouted back as she opened her wings. They covered the light from the room over Glimmer, making her feel powerless, but she grits her teeth.  
  
"Fine!" She barked back as she teleported out, leaving Queen Angella in the room alone and frustrated. Sulking in her chair, she looks over at a stain glass window to her right of what looked to be her, glimmer and a man standing beside her. The eyes of the king were brightly looking down at her, but she looks back with such sadness. “What would you do?” Her eyes then wandered as she looks to the door and sees a figure of a woman holding a sword up in the light.  
  
  
Back in the Fright Zone, Adora is hiding up on a rooftop as she laid down. Holding up the badge up to the air, Adora looks up at it as though she was trying to see something new in it. Her minds wandered as she tried to find the best way to tell the team the news. Especially Catra, who she knew would be the most devastated by this. And her mind was worried about being able to live up to the expectation that Shadow Weaver and Hordark have for her. Then she began to think if she was even ready to lead others for this position.  
  
Suddenly, almost on cue, Catra hovers over her. "Hey, what you got there?" She asks as she snatched the badge from Adora's hand and hops away. Adora was surprised as she turns around and sees Catra.  
  
"Hey, give that back!" Adora stood up as she hurried over to Catra but stopped as Catra smiled at her brightly  
  
"This is incredible! You got promoted to Force Captain! Sweet! This is a huge deal! Now we can all head out in the field, fight side by side for the Horde and finally get to take down those princesses for starting the uprising!" Catra looks at it more while she held it like a precious gift and Adora knew that her mind was running wild with excitement.  
  
Putting a hand on her shoulder, Adora broke Catra's real excitement and looked at her solemnly. "Actually, Shadow Weaver said that I only would get promoted. You and Lonnie and everyone are staying behind to train still."  
  
Immediately, Catra's excitement begins to disappear and becomes upset. "Oh, I see. Well, that makes sense since you are Shadow Weaver's favorite." She said as she shoved the badge back into Adora's hand and walks to the edge off the rooftop and sulks a little. Adora looks at her as she put the badge away and comes over to the edge and sits beside her.  
  
"Believe me; I was sad about this too. I was trying to convince her that I needed you all there with me. We are a team after all," Adora said. "And well... maybe, but that does not mean she does not see your potential."  
  
"Yeah, to be everyone else's punching bag." Catra snarked back. "But whatever, maybe you can put in a good word to Lorde Hordak when you finally get to go on a mission."  
  
Adora looks at her then looks away as she was not sure what to say. She hated the idea of leaving Catra behind, but she knew her position was limited. Suddenly, she began to think of something and smiles. "Hey, why not we go on a late-night patrol?"  
  
"Why? Nothing happens in the Fright zone."  
  
Smirking and standing up, Adora looks at her as she pulled her badge out. "Not for Force Captains," She gleamed then pulled Catra up from her sulking. Adora rushes with Catra to air ski hangers and looks to the guard on site. Flashing her badge to them, the guard then relaxes before he looks to Catra. "What about her?"  
  
"I am taking her on a remedial training session as I think this cadet needs to a lesson about war," Adora said as she sounded serious. Catra was about to speak up before Adora griped her hand tightly to keep her to stay quiet and nods. After a moment, the guard nods. "Understood. Remember to be back before sunset."  
  
"Understood," Adora said as the guard opens the door and they get inside and find an air ski available and then gets on with Catra. Glancing over to her friend, Adora then smiles eagerly. "You ready?" She asks.  
  
Catra glances over as she was confused but then nods. "Sure, I guess." Adora then smiles as she then punches the engine and screeches out from the hanger. The guard was surprised at they suddenly jumped out of the way, and the ski takes off.  
  
Feeling the rush from the wind sent a chill down Catra's back and flushed her face a little. Adora smiles and looks happy as she took control of the ski and kicked into high gear. "Hold on!" She said as she rushed them to the Whispering Woods. Catra, feeling better about, smiles as she grips on to the side of the air ski. "Alright, you were right. This is awesome!" Wooing as loud as she could when they passed the barriers of the Fright Zone, Catra and Adora laugh and smile as they hurry off.  
  
Soon after a few minutes, they come up to the infamous Whispering woods and the campsite of the other Horde soldiers. Adora slows down the air ski as she glances over what was happening. To her surprise, everything and everyone is scrambling around. Everyone was rushing with tools at hand or carrying team members on their backs. A huge flash of light caught Adora’s eyes as she darted her head to it. Suddenly, she saw tanks of fire trying to burn the woods, but it seems as though nothing was affecting the trees. And occasionally, the ground shifted under the tanks and caused them to collapse into the ground. There is so much commotion going on that both Adora and Catra is ignored as they pull the air ski behind others that are parked.  
  
“What are they doing?” Catra asks?  
  
“Shadow Weaver told me that they were making progress of getting through the Whispering Woods to get to Bright Moon. But this is, I didn’t realize how effort it took to do so.” Adora felt a lump in her through as she tried to hide the horror she was witnessing. She knew that she was training for this but seeing what that entailed left her feeling unsure.  
“Help… me” whispered a soft voice.  
Adora flinched as she glanced over to Catra to see if that was her. But to Adora’s reassurance, she saw Catra enamored by the action, like a child watching a fight happen for the first time. 

“The witch is coming…” Whispered the voice again, urgent in its tone.  
“The witch?” Adora asked as she tried to think who it could have meant.  
  
Soon after she said that she sees a bigger air ski that seems to be pulling in closer to the action. Adora gasps as she takes Catra’s hand and jumps off to hide from plain sight. Catra crouched down with her as they both peaked to see their worst fears coming true.  
  
On that larger air ski was Shadow Weaver as she descended on to the ground and two escort soldiers by her side. They were too far to hear what Shadow Weaver was telling the Captains that came up to her, but Adora could tell that they were reporting about the Woods. But from their previous conversation, Adora knew that this might be their chance to get closer to Bright Moon.  
  
“Wonder what she is searching for?” Catra spoke softly as they both continued to watch her.  
  
Confused by that question, Adora looks over to Catra. “What are you talking about?”  
  
“This section of the Whispering Woods is too far from the original plans and pathways to Bright Moon. So, this must be some kind of side plan for Shadow Weaver to find something.”  
  
“What? No Shadow Weaver would never disobey Lord Hordak. Maybe he sent her on a private mission.”  
  
“Well whatever the reason, she seems to be getting pissed off,” Catra pointed out as they both saw Shadow Weaver lift the Captain up and then toss them to the side, gliding over to the spot where the tanks were.  
  
Shadow Weaver suddenly moves her arm up as she was chanting a spell. As she spoke, the shadows that follow her grew and suddenly tried attacking the forest. A howl-like scream came from the attack and caused everyone to fall to their knees. Catra and Adora were affected as well as they could hear the scream as they kneeled. But the scream affected Adora more as she felt something heating up inside her. She covered her ears and bit her lips tightly to push through it.  
  
“Stop! Need She-Ra.”  
  
Adora is grimacing in pain as she heard the voice this time in her head. “She… Ra?”  
  
Catra looked over and saw Adora in pain as she grabbed her shoulders. “Adora? Adora. What is wrong?”  
  
“Need... the Sword… Find us!” A flash of images came into Adora’s mind as she is still in pain. But in those few seconds, what she saw in those images surprised her. She sees the world of Etheria from beyond the sky. The next image was that of a star-like ship falling. Then the memory of the woman from her past standing in what looked like battle armor appeared. But this memory looked different as she was holding a sword in her hand. The sword as a large board sword that was the same height as this woman, but the hilt of the sword was what Adora’s sight in the image as it was golden and a small crystal stone in the middle of it. From that stone, the next image flashed as it then showed the sword somewhere in the middle of a lush forest. And with the last image, it showed a vision of a castle in the middle of the forest as well, seeming to pulse with light.  
  
Adora opens her eyes as she saw that the light was coming as a pulse and she turned to Catra. “Get down.” She pulled Catra down with her and covered both of their heads.  
  
Suddenly, before Catra could say anything, a pulse of pure light came visible through the forest line. All the soldiers were surprised as they tried to brace for it. This counterattack does not phase shadow Weaver as she continued her attack. But the impact was too great as the light blasted through the trees and blasted everything back completely. Soldiers were flung away like rag dolls. Machines were pushed back into each other that causes an explosion. But Shadow Weaver took the brunt of the attack as she tried to push through, but then brought her arms up to take a hard blow, forcing her back to her air ski, leaving her pinned against it.  
  
Adora looks up a little as she kept Catra’s head down. In the light, although she had to squint, Adora could see something coming up to her. To her surprise, it was a woman in white and gold, like the memory from so long ago. As the figure got closer and kneeling before Adora, she stuck out her hand to Adora and smiled. “Take care of this world, She-Ra,” She said as her hand was now in Adora’s reach.

Confused and struggling to see, Adora looks at the hand as she hesitated a second. But due to the blast, she struggled to hold Catra and herself down. With nothing else to hold on to, Adora grabbed on to the hand.  
  
The woman smiled before fading into the light. Soon after, the light attack stopped. In the wake of it, it seemed as though more trees began to grow around the brunt spot and began shifting around. Leaving the camp in ruins as everyone tried to get their bearings.  
  
Adora pants a little as she looks up and surveys the damage.  
  
Catra looks up as well as she was trying to see what happened and process it as well. But she also gasped as she looked back and saw her tail wrapped around Adora. Adora looked back as well then looks to Catra. “Are you okay?” She asks as she checked any scratches on her.  
  
Catra, still shaking from the blast, looks at Adora’s hand that was coming closer to her cheek as she pulled away. “Yeah, I am fine. Just confused. What was that?”  
  
“I..I don’t know. It might have been some new defense that Bright Moon might have set up to destroy us.”  
  
“No way, they would not have any kind of weapon like that. That was almost out of this world.”  
  
As they spoke, they heard a growl-like yell come from Shadow Weaver as she got up. Wobbling a little before yelling to the sky, it was clear that this infuriated Shadow Weaver to no end. “Why must you defy me?! I am the most powerful sorceress in all of Etheria! You must obey! You will show me your secrets, First Ones!” She screamed before suddenly falling to her knees. The escort team came over as they caught her and began taking her back to her air ski.  
  
Catra and Adora were surprised as they watched her get taken away from the campsite. They saw her get angry before, but this was different. Almost like an obsession for her as it was just out of reach for her.  
  
When they saw the air ski take off, Catra and Adora then sit up as they take a minute to process it. Adora sees Catra's tail still around her waist in a protective way. “Catra, are you sure you are okay? You have not let me go yet.”  
  
Catra looks over as she then blushed a little and then nods as it loosens and relaxes on the ground. “I am fine. Just I never felt anything so powerful. It was almost like it was trying to reach inside of my soul.”  
  
“Same here. And that woman, she seemed so familiar...”  
  
Catra’s ears perked up as she heard that. Turning to Adora with confusion, she put a hand on her forehead.  
  
Adora sat there as she was confused as well. “What are you doing?”  
  
“You sure you did not get hit by some of the debris? Or feel feverish?”  
  
“What are you talking about? No, I did not.”  
  
“You Sure?” she asks as she comes closer and feels her head for any bumps.  
  
Adora gets irritated as she then pushes Catra away. “Yes, I am. What are you getting on about?”  
  
“Because there is no one in front of us, especially no woman. We were too far from anyone to even see us let alone know we were here.”  
  
“Hey, I see movement!” Adora and Catra flinch as they heard a voice coming from behind and they see other soldiers coming their way.  
  
“Except now. Let’s run while we can,” Catra said as she jumped up on to the one that they took. Adora stumbled to get up and then on as the soldiers get closer and try to call out to them. But it was too late as Catra got the engine running and careened out of there. Adora, sitting down as she was trying to catch her breath, tried to process what Catra said. Turning up to her friend as she was driving them back to the fright zone, Adora felt the lump in her throat again as she did not want to seem as crazy.  
  
“Catra, you sure that there was no one else. No voice telling you are talking to you?” She asked.  
  
Catra glanced down to her as she was trying to focus on driving, about to blurt out a simple answer but she could see the confusion and fear in Adora’s eyes, so she contemplated her words before glancing back up. “I don’t know. Maybe we are just both tired from today. Let’s just go home and rest, okay?” Her words were concerned but also calming to Adora as she could tell that her friend was trying to help in her own way.  
  
“Yeah… okay. Maybe you are right.” She said as she leans back and tries to close her eyes for a moment. But the image of the woman in gold and white kept creeping back into her mind. And the name that she tried to push away for so long: She-Ra.  
  
  
Finally, in her room, Glimmer groans as she sighs and begins taking off some of her armor and training gear. Flopping on her couch connecting to her large window, she tries to relax, but her muscles were still sore from the training the General gave her. She opened the window a little as she tried to get a cool breeze in her room, but it was no good. Her face was red from the hard training as well as still fuming about her argument about her mother. She wanted to cry so badly, but she hated the idea of it. But she looks at a notebook on her stand and gazes at it for a second.  
  
Reaching for her pillow to prop herself up, Glimmer grabs the notebook and then opens it. She grabbed a feathered pen as she looks in the book then began to write in it. "Hey, Dad... It is mean again. I just made a mistake... again. I know that I tend to be a bit stubborn, but honestly, I can't help it. Mom is just so insufferable, she still treats me like a child even though we need all the help we can get. And yet, I get stuck with these stupid scouting missions. I know that you can’t help me, but I just… I need advice... What would you do if you were still here..."  
  
A shadowy figure is standing outside of her window, observing her. Glimmer continues to write unaware of what was happening outside of her open window. Then out of the corner of her eye, a twinkle of light hits what looks to be metal and she suddenly teleported to away for a second and avoided the arrow as it crashed into her wall. She sees the arrow as she saw the gold tint it had and a little heart on it. Grumbling a little, she pokes her head out of the window and looks to check her suspicion.  
  
And not to her surprise, she sees the figure as he came out from the shadows. A tall young man with a gold armor on his chest. On his back was a quiver full of arrows as he stood tall holding his bow in his hand as he then waves to her. He hair was a cut a bit short to his head but it still wild looking as he flashed his brown hazel eyes with excitement to her. His midriff was showing but you can see a belt of gadgets and tools hung from them. He wore gold shin armor as well to protect his legs while his arms were free to move around to pull the bows back, except for armored wrist bands. “Glimmer! Let me in!” He yelled to her but showed restraint in the volume of his voice.  
  
Glimmer is stammering a little as she then raised her finger to her lips. “Bow! Get out of here! You should not be here.” She whispered to him loudly.  
  
Bow looks at her as he can barely hear what she said. He raised an ear to her.  
  
Groaning a little, Glimmer takes the arrow that he shot in her room and tied a quick note. Then she teleported it to him. When it appeared to him, he untied the note and read: “You can’t be here right now. I am grounded.”  
  
He looks at her as he looks confused then wrote something back to her and then waved his hand quickly to her. She sees his hand and then nods as she moved away from the window. Aiming, Bow shot it back inside. Glimmer then took the note and read it: “Please! Let me in. It's urgent!”  
  
Looking back to him from the window as she sees the determination in his eyes, she nods as she teleported to him. “You have five minutes,” she said as she suddenly grabbed his hand and teleported him back into the room with her. “What did you find?”  
  
He looked excited as he smiled and pulled out a scanner from his quiver. “You will not believe what I found when I was in the Whispering Wood. It will help us change everything!”  
  
“You said that the last time,” Glimmer grumbled as she looks away. Bow could sense that she was in a bad mood as he put the scanner away then sits down. “Okay, what is wrong?”  
  
“Nothing is wrong,” She shifted in her spot but flinched and inhaled as she felt the bruise that was forming on her leg. Bo raised an eyebrow to her and crossed his arm.  
  
“Really now?”  
  
Glimmer looks at him as she then sighed and relaxed. “I had a talk with my mother about the attack.”  
  
“How did it go?” he asked as he was attentive of her frustration growing behind her eyes.  
  
“Just… Every time I try to do something remotely helpful to keep tabs on the Horde, I end up looking more and more like a child and not taken seriously. This time, my mom grounded me basically to guard duty and training again! All because I was careless!” She blurted out. “And sure, maybe I am careless but at least I am trying to improve myself! I don’t see her getting into the fight like she used to.”  
  
Bow watched her as he nodded and then exhaled a little. “So bad.”  
  
“It’s always bad, Bow. It’s like, no matter how I try to prove I am more than just a princess, I will never get her approval to promote to a higher rank! It’s like she wants to baby me all the time and never thinks of me as a grown adult.”  
  
“But we are still teenagers…”  
  
“You know what I mean. I just want to be taken seriously.” She blurted out as she teleported herself up to her hanging bed, lying down as she tried to sulk without feeling sore.  
  
Bow looks up at her. “People do take you seriously,” he said as he turned to the floating steps leading to her bed. “They just don’t see what you have to offer…”  
  
“They only take me seriously when I remind them that I am a princess and daughter of Queen Angella and my Dad. But otherwise, they all probably think I am nothing but a joke. Never mind that my mom thinks that there is no reason to worry about the Horde probably planning some attack or full-blown war! All she wants to do it pray that the First ones hear us and finally send some stupid hero, saying that she will fix everything!”  
  
“Well, I can’t blame her for wanted to believe in something. A lot is going on for her to think about. And there is nothing wrong with being a princess. You at least have cool powers.” He said as he comes up and sits on the rim of her bed.  
  
“Yeah, teleportation and shooting balls of light will be helpful against lasers and bombs.” She snarled as she turned in her bed.  
  
He raised an eyebrow to her and coughed at her with annoyance. Glimmer looked to him then sighed. “Right, sorry.”  
  
He nods as he relaxed. “It is fine,” he said as he smiled at her calmly.  
  
She smiled as she then realized he wanted to tell her something. “Oh yeah, so tell me about what you came here for.”  
  
“Oh right,” He said as his excitement grew. “Remember how we got separated from the attack?”  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“Well, soon after that, I was trying to make my way back to Bright Moon, when a bright light came out of nowhere in the deeper part of the woods. It was just for a moment, but when it disappeared, it caused my scanner picked up on something that I have never seen before. Might be some remnants of the First One’s tech.” He showed her the screen of the scanner and it showed a bar graph with insane levels of power. Glimmer sits up as she brought the scanner closer to her eyes.  
  
“That is impossible. I have never seen anything like it. You think it is First One Tech?”  
  
“Maybe, but we have to go back and check it out! If this is from their tech, maybe we can use it to shift the tension in our favor and finally stand a chance against the Horde.”  
  
Glimmer ponders this for a second. “I guess but… how sure are you that this is not just some blip in the system?”  
  
“As sure as I was able to hit that Horde goon’s shoulder in the back with a sweet scent arrow causing all the forest creatures to go chasing after him and his buddies packing,” he said with a bit of cockiness in his tone and sat up proudly.  
  
“Even though you also got some of that sweet scent on you and almost got caught in that stampede before I teleported us out?” Glimmer jabs a little and pokes his cheek.  
  
Grumbling a little, Bow nods. “Still, I am positive this is what we have been looking for.”  
  
“Bow, come on, you know that I am grounded. Besides, those woods are weird at night. The General forbids people going out too far into the Whispering Woods at night because of its’ unpredictable nature.”  
  
“Since when has that stopped you before?”  
  
“Because if I want to be taken seriously, I have to try and set a good example. And the last thing I need is to be going off into those creepy woods at night while I am-“  
  
There was a knock on the door as Glimmer and Bow tense up and wait to hear who it was.  
  
“Glimmer, you in there?” It was Queen Angella. Glimmer squeaked a bit in fear as she took Bow’s hand and teleported him back outside before she teleported back in.  
  
“Glimmer you better not have some random boy in there!”  
  
“Really mom? That is what you are worried about!?” Glimmer exclaimed as she heard her mother said that to her.  
  
Bow watched from the outside looking in as he saw Queen Angella come into the room and seem to be talking to Glimmer. However, it looked more like arguing than talking. He could tell that things usually got heated between the two, so he just decided to wait it out. His biggest concern was to determine what that blimp on his scanner was. Getting first tech for him to look and replicate it stop the fighting between Bright Moon and the Fright Zone. Both sides of this dispute have been fighting for territory for years, but recently it seems like the Horde will do nothing until they come and destroy them. He looked at the scanner more as he tuned out the sound of the bickering.  
  
Suddenly, he heard slamming of the door as he looked up. He saw Glimmer standing there as she was upset. He felt guilty as he could see that she was trying her best to be strong for her people, but he could not do anything else but support her in the little ways. He lamented whether they could wait till the morning to go searching the woods.  
  
But to his surprised, Glimmer teleported as she was wearing her usual attire. A purple cover-up over her one piece that showed off a little bit of her hips. On her shoulders, two shoulder pads that were shaped like wings were holding up a sparkling cape. Her boots reached up her shin as they also had some wing to the side but visibly had a crescent moon on the front. Wearing fingerless gloves, she pulled her arm protection up as she looked determined. “Let’s go find this.”

“Everything okay?” he asks carefully.

“Yeah, just… I want to get out of the castle for a bit. That is all.” She wavered in her voice a little to hold back what she was feeling hoping he would not notice. But he did as he nods. “Last act of teenage rebellion?” He teases a little.

She looks at him but then chuckles as she nods and begins walking into the woods. “Possibly.” He smiled at her as he walked off after her, holding the scanner up to check where they were going.  
  
In the barracks, all the soldiers were resting up for the night. Lonnie, Kyle, and the Lizardman were sound asleep as they were able to get to bed early. Adora and Catra had to sneak back in, while they avoided being seen by their superiors. But Catra was doing most of the sneaking while Adora was still a daze about the situation and the images that she saw. When they both got to their beds, Catra suggested through hand signs for her to pull her bed closer to Adora’s just in case she needed her close. Adora smiled and nodded as she undressed into her bare essential clothes and then got into bed. Catra does the same and carefully brought her bed next to hers.  
  
When they laid down, Catra reached for Adora’s hand. Adora did the same as she took her hand. They both smiled at each other then begin to drift to sleep. At least, that was what Adora had hoped. But the images in her mind kept coming back to her. And the voices were whispering to her: “Find me… Find the sword.”

Adora tosses in her sleep a little as she opens her eyes looking up at the same barracks ceiling that she has seen for all her life. She can’t seem to get the images out of her head. Then as she closed her eyes one more time, she suddenly sees the sword from before. It is floating in the air as it shimmered in the dream, then the sword flipped around and dug itself into the ground. 

“Find me…” The voice said again. Adora looks at the sword as she sees the sword in a location and then sits up as she realizes where it was. Glancing over at Catra that was curled up in a ball on her bed, Adora sighs and then slowly gets up out of bed. She pulls her sheets up into a ball to look like it was her as she then grabbed her gear to sneak out, not realizing that Catra’s tail shifted a little back. 

As she is sneaking around, Adora looks around for other guards patrolling their barracks. She watches as spots two of them coming around the corner and stays still. Instinctively she held her breath as she waited for them to pass. As she sees their lights past her, she watches for another second before poking her head out to do one last check. However, she was not prepared behind her as a hand suddenly grabs her by the wrist.

Adora was about to punch the person that grabbed her until she was that it was Catra, who was in her sleepwear and messy bed head; making her looks more cat-like with this look.

“What are you doing out here?” Catra asked her. “And why are you in uniform?”

Adora looks to her friend before looking down. “I just… I need to get some fresh air. I couldn’t sleep.”

“And you think that wearing your uniform would help you?” Catra’s grip tightens around Adora’s wrist before loosening it to comfort her. “Come on. You can tell me what is going on.”

Adora, seeing her friend trying to help her relax, sighs as she turned to her. “I need to go back to woods.”

Catra looked shocked as she let go of Adora’s wrist and then puts them on her shoulder. “What? Are you crazy? Now I am positive you got hit somehow, come on, let’s go to the sickbay.”

“Catra, I am fine,” Adora re-assured her as she then took her hands off. “I just need to see something for myself. I promise I will be back in the morning.”

“Adora, you need to rest. Can’t this wait till morning.” She said as she was getting annoyed with Adora. 

But Adora was equally persistent as she looks at her and nods. “I will be back in the morning. Cover for me, please?”

Adora looked at Catra with soft eyes and a low plea, making Catra look at her, and her ears flexed down as she was struggling to not cave but then nods. “Fine, but if I get in trouble, you have to take the blame with me.”

“Deal,” she said as she patted Catra’s shoulder. Catra blinked a little then nods as she watched Adora hurry off before the next round of guards come. While she knew Adora would be okay, Catra could not help but feel this nagging feeling in her heart that this would be the last time that she would see her best friend. She shook her head to ignore it and began making her way back to the barracks. 

However, she got stopped a woman in black as she appeared from nothing in front of her. Catra gasped as she fell back on to the ground. “I was not sneaking off, I swear!” She exclaimed as quietly as she could to not draw more attention to her, but ready to run if she needed to.

But the woman in black smiled at her, offering her hand to Catra without saying a word. Catra looked at her hand in awe and suspicion. No one ever offered their hand to her outside of Adora. 

“No worries, little warrior, I mean you no harm,” the woman spoke softly and with a gentle demeanor in her tone that resonated in Catra like nothing she had ever felt before. Trying to see her face, Catra looked up at where her eyes would be but were covered by a black visor connected to a helmet that she wore. Even though she could not see her eyes, Catra could tell that they are meeting her with equal curiosity. Almost like she was compelled to, Catra reached out and took the woman’s hand as she was helped up. Catra shook off the dirt on her nightwear as she looks to the woman. 

“Thanks,” Catra stated as she nodded to the woman and began to get back to the barracks before the lady changed her mind.

“Such a shame to see a potential captain go to waste,” the woman said as Catra passed her. 

Freezing her in her tracks, Catra glanced over to her. “What did you say?”

“Your little friend. She had such promise, such leadership in her. Such a pity to see her go.”

“What are you talking about? Adora is coming back. She will never leave.”

“Oh, how sure are you?”

“I’m… sure.” Catra could not help but feel a few her fears grow, but she tried to push it down as she figured the woman was playing tricks with her.

“Heh, if she was not going to abandon you, then why didn’t she ask you to come with her?” The woman spoke to Catra with a bit of a silver tongue. “How do you know that she will even come back after she found what she was looking for?”

“She will not!” Catra grew furious as she took a swipe at the woman. But the lady glanced at her for a second before blocking Catra’s attack and pulling her arm up and behind her, pinning her to the metal ground. Catra groaned from impact and struggled to get out of it, but the woman was stronger than her. Turning her head as much as she could, Catra glared at her with a furious passion. The woman smiled with delight.

“That is what I wanted to see, the spark. That drive, so beautiful,” she said as she let Catra go. Catra pounced away from the woman as she stood up ready to fight. But the woman chuckled to herself. “Take my warning as truth, little warrior. Today was your last night with your friend. Tomorrow, by this time, she will have turned.” Before Catra could say anything to the woman, she jumped up the building and back toward the center of the Fright Zone. 

Catra stood there, cold and bruised but still fuming from the previous belittling, could not figure out what to think. Turning her head back to the direction that Adora snuck off to, Catra could not help but feel fear forming in the pit of her stomach. But she could not dwell on it long as she heard some more guards coming and she hurried back to the barracks, hoping that this was all just a bad dream.  
  
After some time getting into the forest, Adora gets there with the air ski and tries to find an alternate way. She avoids the campsite but skims the edge of the woods to see if there was an opening for her and the ski, but nothing that she could tell. After a few more minutes, she found a small opening for herself to get in; once she parked the air ski, she grabbed her laser gun and a force field band. She grabbed a heat-seeking visor to help her track anything following her and then made her way into the woods.

Adora steeled herself as she walked further into the forest as she had no idea what to expect. She knew that forces of Bright Moon were scattered throughout the woods. However, she was unsure to what extent. From her visor, all she could make out were forest animals of all sorts and her heat signature but nothing else. But that was not the part that put Adora on edge. That was the fact that it felt like she was being watched by something. As though every move she made was judge and it felt like the forest was playing a game on her.

Taking a moment to think, Adora stops and leans against a tree. “Okay… random voice in my head. You told me to find you, whatever you are. Now, how about a little help here.” She whispered to herself just in case, only it felt like it made her look crazy as she was talking to herself. 

A minute passes as she waits for a sign before Adora grows impatient. “Well great, I just wasted my time coming out here,” she mumbled as she began to make her way back to the air ski. When suddenly the ground broke up under her and caused her to fall a few feet from the new cliffside. Adora gasped as she scrambled to find something to grab and managed to hook onto a free rock. Panting from the exhilaration and sheer panic, Adora looked down as she tried to gather mind. 

“Let go… trust in the forest.” The voice spoke again. 

“What? Are you crazy? Wait a minute, who are you? How are you speaking in my head?”

“Just trust me and let go.” It was reassuring and calm compared to Adora’s pulsing thoughts and rushed voice. 

“Why should I trust you?!” She yelled.

“You came this far, correct?”

Unable to think of a good comeback, Adora looked one more time down at the height and then grimaced as she let go of the rock supporting her and fell into the trees down below.  
  
“Admit it. We are lost,” Glimmer groans as she and Bow kept walking into the Whispering Woods. 

“We are not lost, I know where I am going,” Bow said as he was concentrating on the scanner. 

“You said that about an hour ago,” Glimmer said as she hurried her pace to walk beside him and look at the scanner too.

“And I will say what I said the last time, I know where we are going,” he said as he walked the other direction when the scanner beeped.

Glimmer got annoyed as she looks at him. “Bow, we have been walking for two hours now minus me teleporting us to the base. There is no way we are going to find it this time of night now.”

"Glimmer come on, I thought you were the one that wanted to have a little teenage rebellion,” he said as he looked up a little. 

“That was before I knew how long it would take,” she groaned as she then collapsed on the nearest rock.

“Patience is a virtue,” Bow said as he stopped and then began adjusting the scanner.

“Patience and I do not get along very well,” Glimmer said as she closed her eyes for a moment while Bo had his back turned. At that second, the ground shifted and re-organized itself around them. Glimmer opened her eyes and noticed that she was sitting down below a hill while Bow was further up the hill. She gets up as she freaked out and teleported back to him in a second. Bow jumped a little as he saw her teleport in front of her.

“Glimmer warn me next time you teleport. You nearly gave me a heart attack.” He gasped. 

"That was not my fault. I closed my eyes for a second then it looked like I was at the bottom of the hill.”

Bow looks confused as he looked down the hill the rock she was sitting on and then realized what she was talking about. He brought his hand to his chin as he thought when the scanner beeped, and it was showing the same signature are before. He thought a bit more before he smiled with excitement. “Of course! I think I know how we can find the source now!”

“How?”

“We stand perfectly still,” he said.

Glimmer looks at him confused and unamused. “I don’t follow you.” 

“Listen, this forest, it is alive in a way, right?”

“Yeah, we have known for some time that it has a mind of its own. What is your point?”

“What if the forest is trying to show us the right way but we have to let it guide us?”

“Letting the forest guide us when it could potentially kill us?”

“Yes!”

Glimmer looks at him confused more. “That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard,” she said.

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Well, I –“ Before she could finish her sentence, the ground shifted under them and caused a makeshift cliff, causing them to fall to the trees down below. Bow and Glimmer scream as they fall. Acting quick, Glimmer took Bow’s hand and then teleported them under the tree line.  
  
“Ow,” Adora said as she groaned and sat up. Seeing that she is caught in a mesh of branches, Adora sighs as she tries to make her way out of it. Jumping down and checking for any cuts or bruises, Adora then checked her gear. Seeing that her bracelet was still intact, she felt a bit better but was upset her gun and the visor was crushed or broken into little pieces. Feeling furious, Adora then kicked a rock into the brush.  
“You happy? I did what you said and now look at this!” Her yelling fell on deaf ears as it echoed throughout the trees. “If you wanted me to find you…. Whatever you are why not just…” As she screamed her heart out, Adora suddenly sees a cool blue colored light coming out from nowhere. Slowly turning to the light, her anger and annoyance fell as it was replaced with curiosity and wave of serenity. 

“Adora…” the voice came back but was closer to her. Adora gasps a little as she heard it then looks for it. “Come… closer Adora.” When she looked to the source of the light, Adora could tell it was from there and began to walk toward it.  
  
“In all honesty, I will admit, this was a bad idea,” Glimmer said annoyed.

“And I will also admit, I agree with you,” Bo said woozily. 

Both were hanging upside down as they are caught in a tree with vines. Bo began cutting the vines with the edge of an arrow was up against it as he fiddled with it. Glimmer looks over as she then nudged him. “Here, let me get us down.”

“You sure? You will run out of energy to teleport if you keep doing that.”

“Only if I go too far, besides I feel fine,” Glimmer said as she swung herself closer to him and then grabbed his leg as it was the closest to them and teleported them both closer to the ground, however, both ended up landing on their faces. 

Getting back up on her feet, Glimmer grunts in pain from her bruise and tries to keep her voice down. “Okay, how about we get out of here before the forest tries to kill us?”

“Maybe you’re right. I don’t think I was quite ready for…” Bow stops as he suddenly sees the light coming through the brush. “Glimmer.”

“I cannot believe that we went through all of this trouble just for the forest to play a prank on us,” Glimmer said as she had her back toward it and was whipping the dirt off her.

“Glimmer…” Bow said as he kept watching the light. 

“Honestly, this is not what I needed before I get another earful from my -”

“Glimmer!” Bow exclaimed as it finally caught her attention. Glimmer gasps as she looks at the blue colored light faintly shining. Glimmer rubbed her eyes as she tried to see it if there.

“Maybe it is just another trick by the forest?” She questioned as she tried to rationalize it. Then, almost on cue, the brush of the forest began to move and seem as though it was beckoning them to follow the light.

Standing there slack-jawed, Glimmer and Bow both glance at each other, hesitating to trust it.

“Well, we made it this far, right?” Bow asks as he offers Glimmer’s hand.

Glimmer looks at him and then takes his hand back. “Right… just don’t let go just in case we need to get out of there quickly.”

“Right,” he said as he held on and they both walked closer to the light.  
-  
“Adora… Adora…” the voice kept calling for her. Adora continues to follow the light as the brush seems to be getting thicker. She uses the shield bracelet to help push some of it out of the way and see where the light was taking her.

“I am here… What is it that you want from me?” Adora called out to the voice. 

“I have been waiting for a long time… to finally reconnect with the one… one lost…” The voice began to speak in fragmented sentences as Adora got closer. But Adora could not help but feel as the voice sounded genuinely happy to talk to her. As she pushed the last brush out of the way, Adora flinched from the brightness but then stood in awe of what she had seen.

Not sure of how or why, but Adora could see it. In the middle of an opening, the beautiful sword from her dream was in the ground, covered in vines and rubbish, but the guard of the sword was still visible above it all. The stone embedded in it shined its beautiful moon blue glow as it suddenly dimmed when Adora was in the view of it. Adora lowered her shield as she was mesmerized by the sword and the beauty. But at the same time, it felt familiar to her, outside of her dreams of it.

“You were the one calling for me?”

“Yes… I called for you as you are the only one that I can trust…” the voice softly said to her.

“But why?”

Before the sword could say anything to her, Adora suddenly hears movement as her eyes darted to the source of it. To her surprise, she froze in shock as she saw Bow and Glimmer, walking out from the brush as well, standing for a split second in fear and anger of the sight of Adora, still wearing her horde uniform. 

“Horde soldier!” Bow yelled as he then let go of Glimmer’s hand and reached for his bow, which sprung open from its collapsible form to a full-on bow. Drawing from his quiver in a second, Bo managed to get one on the notch and fire at Adora, who still wore her shield band, lifts it to defend herself.

Glimmer stands there still as she then sees the sword and makes a run for it. “Keep at it,” she yelled and ran for it. 

Adora, while dodging a barrage of arrows, noticed Glimmer running for the sword. In that second while she saw Bo reaching for another arrow, dashes from her position and grabbed a large stick. She knew she had to keep running to avoid his attack as she picked up another stick and threw it toward Glimmer.

“Glimmer, watch out!” Bow yelled as he tried to take another shot at Adora but hits her shield more. 

Glimmer, just barely reaching for the sword, looked back at Bow before realizing the stick thrown at her. She closed her eyes and teleported away from the stick but right into Adora, who jumped and used the large stick to strike Glimmer down. Glimmer gasps as she moves back and avoids Adora’s strikes somewhat but could not predict with accuracy as Adora was feverishly using all her combat skills to the test. Bow, a bit of a distance away, tried to see if he could get another shot in but dared not to try it in the off chance he would hit Glimmer. He folds his bow back into a smaller club like a weapon as he rushed into to give Glimmer some cover. 

Getting tired, Glimmer jumped back a little to avoid Adora’s swings as she panted a little. The teleportation was starting to get to her while Adora was ready to strike when Bow jumped in and blocked the attack. Bo glanced down to Glimmer as he and Adora were locked in. “Go, I go this.”

Glimmer nods as she then runs over again to the sword. But Adora sees this as she used her size to her advantage and punched Bo in the stomach hard, knocking the wind out of him a little more than he thought. Running back to the sword, Glimmer focused all her energy just to get there when Adora, faster than she was, was right beside her as they both leaped for the sword. But thankfully for Adora being a bit taller than Glimmer, her reach was much more significant as her hand wrapped around the grip of the sword. In that second, a burst of energy gushes out from the sword as it flung Glimmer into Bow as he finally got up. Bo braced for her, but he groaned from the pain. They see a figure rising from the Sword looking down at Adora as if a shadow was taking over. The shadow they saw was a huge woman looking tall and proud as her eyes glow and a golden light shines out from her hair. Glimmer and Bow watch at the figure in awe before it disappeared.

But Adora did not see the figure as she tried to let go of the sword, but her hand seemed to be stuck to it, so her next option was to pull it out. Struggling to get the sword, as the figure disappeared, the sword was finally pulled out from the vines and rubbish, letting Adora hold it high into the air. When she did, memories and images seemed to flow into Adora like a river breaking down a damn. All of it was overloading her senses and mind, bring a hand to her head. Too much of the pain built up in her head as she collapsed on to the ground still holding the sword in her hand. 

Feeling faint, Adora passed out but she kept hearing a single word in her head. As she laid there, the word “Eternia” kept coming to her lips as she finally blacked out. 

Glimmer and Bow stood there, completely confused about what they just saw and equally concerned about how they were going to explain it to Angelica. 

“Oh… this is bad. This is really bad. This is really really bad. My mother is going to kill me,” Glimmer began to flip out as she paced in her spot. 

Ignoring Glimmer’s freak out, Bow carefully walks over to the passed out Adora as he tried to get a look at the sword that was still tightly held in Adora’s hand. He holds his scanner up to it to check his suspicion and when it beeped it check out.

“Oh gods… I was right,” he said.

Glimmer stops panicking and looks to him. “What do you mean?”

“I was right about this being part of the First One’s tech. This sword is giving off immense power and it is causing my scanner to go crazy.”

Glimmer looks shocked then smiles. “Oh, great, our problem is solved then. We just take the sword with us, leave the Horde soldier here, teleport home and then my mom will finally see me as a productive princess.”

“Glimmer, we can’t leave the soldier here. She could die out here,” he pointed out.

“It will be fine, she got here on her own, I am sure she can do it again. Now just grab the sword and let’s get out of here,” Glimmer beamed with excitement, much to Bow’s dismay but he rolls his eyes as he grabbed the sword grip the best he could and pulled.

The sword did not budge as Bow noticed it was heavier than it seemed. He tried pulling the sword again as he used two hands. It still did not budge nor did Adora’s hand release from the grip. Glimmer watches as her excitement grows into impatience again. 

“Bow, stop playing around and get the sword,” she said as she did not know when Adora would wake up.

“I am trying, but it is not moving,” Bow said as his muscles bulge a little as he uses all his strength to move it. Glimmer groans as she then comes over and grabs it. 

“Here, I’ll teleport it out of the way,” she said as she grabbed it and teleported out. She smirked as if she achieved the impossible, only to find that she brought Adora and the sword with her and the weight of them both was too much as they fell on top of Glimmer. 

Bow winced a little as he hurried over and helped get her out from under Adora. “For the record, I thought that was going to work as well.”

Glimmer panted a little. “Geez, what do they feed their soldiers over there?” She exaggerated a little as she then tried pulling the sword out herself then gets irritated. 

“Stupid… Sword… budge!” She gasps between pulling as she was determined now than ever just to get the sword to leave Adora’s grasp but nothing happened.

Bow watched on as he then looks to Glimmer. “I think it might be stuck with her. We should probably take her back the Castle and have the medic help us,” he suggested.

Glimmer froze as she then turned to him in a panic. “Oh like that will work out well? Just imagine what my mother would say. ‘Gee Glimmer, I am so proud you disobeyed me again and not only went sneaking off into the Whispering Woods at night, but you also brought a Horde soldier with you holding powerful First One Tech that you can not take back.’ Yeah, let’s all just throw a parade in my glorious mess up of the century.”

Bow watched her as she flipped out, but he stayed silent until he was able to get his word in. “Okay, then how about we at least get her to a base and see if we can pull it apart from there?”

Feeling as though she was running out of options, Glimmer sighs as she nods. “Fine, but we have to tie her up. She is our prisoner after all.”  
Bow nods as he pulled out some rope from his quiver and tied Adora’s hands then helps lift her by her shoulders and Glimmer grabbed her legs. “An old base camp is not too far from here, maybe we can get some supplies there,” Bow said as they lifted Adora, the sword place carefully on top of her. 

\- “Sounds like a good idea,” Glimmer grimaced a little as she looks at Adora then to Bow. “Let’s go before I change my mind.” He bobbed his head the best he could as he began leading the way out and Glimmer following carefully with Adora in tow.  
-  
\- Deep in Adora’s sleep, her mind wandered through all the memories and images that enter into her head. All of them were blurred or too vague for her to make anything from it. Some of them looked like she was in the middle of it and other images looked as though she was looking at a stranger. But her mind kept a few words in her head that seemed almost like a chant, but they were so loud in her head that she could not understand them.

“What is happening? Where am I?” She yelled as she tried to get an answer from nothing.

“You are inside your mind,” the voice said to her as it seemed almost all around her. Adora turns around as she tries to see where the source of the voice was this time. 

“Alright, I have had enough of this! Show yourself!” She demanded as her fear was growing a little.

Suddenly a ball of light appears and floats carefully to Adora, who watched it and was ready to attack. “Adora, I have waited for so long to finally meet you. I wish I could be there in person.”

Confused, Adora looks at the light and then rushed closer to it. “Tell me, what is going on? Where am I? And what do you mean ‘be there in person’? Do… do you know who I am?”

“I do but I could not there physically to protect you like I was tasked to. For that I am sorry, but know that now you have the Sword of Power. A great honor to have. And one that will help you find that answers you seek.”

Adora feels some form of excitement in her that she never felt before. “So then, that sword… you were calling me from there?”

“Correct, although, we do not have much time as you will be waking up soon.” The voice was correct as all the images begin to fade into the darkness around her. Adora felt as though the darkness was going to swallow her next as she looked to the light. “Please, tell me more. I need to know about who I am and where I came from.”

"Unfortunately, I do not have time, but fear not. If you are ever in danger, you must chant the incantation, and your birth rights will finally be fulfilled.”

“What incantation? What birthrights?” Adora hurried questions as the light was fading as well and the darkness is surrounding her more.

“Speak the incantation: For the Honor of Gray Skull. And become She-RA!” The light faded away as the voice echoed the same words again before silence and Adora was left in it.

Feeling the fear in her, her body woke up in a jolt. Adora flinched as she realized that it was all in her head. But she soon looked around to see that she was not in the opening from before. All around her were ruined tents and a crumbling building that prompt her up. The sword was still in her hand, but she noticed that her hands were bound tightly by some rope. Trying to get herself free, Adora shifts up and against the wall and tries to use her legs to push against the wall. She was somewhat limited as they also bound her ankle to a tree not too far from the wall. Thinking that she could cut herself free, Adora managed to scoot the sword to the rope and move her ankle up and down against the sword edge.

But her efforts were cut short as Bow comes from around the wall and looks at her, and then flinched. “You’re up?!” He yelped as he dropped what looked to be ointment of some kind. 

“What? She is up?” Glimmer asks as she comes around and sees Adora trying to get up. Glimmer hurried over and then lifted Adora a bit more as she then slammed a hand to the wall.

“Alright, Horde soldier. Time to answer some questions,” Glimmer spoke in a deeper tone than her usual higher pitch that it came across as unnatural. 

Adora looks at Glimmer uncertain if she should laugh or mimic her. She assumed that this was supposed to be intimidating but it only comes across as desperate, which was further supported by Bow, refraining from laughing as best as he could. 

Glimmer shot him a scary look before looking back at Adora. “How did you get in here?”

“I didn’t you all brought me here,” Adora said as she was not intimidated by this tactic from her life in the Horde.

Glimmer was shocked by her reply then shook it off as she continued. “What brought you into the Woods? Did you use some kind of secret weapon?”

“Sure, if you count proper tools for hunting as ‘secret weapons,’ then yes, and I just walked into the forest,” Adora was very relaxed during all, making Glimmer angrier.

“Alright, you are a cheeky one, but now spill, how did you find First One’s tech?” She demanded.

This caught Adora off guard out of everything else. “First One’s tech?” She glanced at her hand gripping the sword. “This thing?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I’ll ask one more time: how did you find it?”

Adora looks at it more as she was more mesmerized by the sword than in Glimmer’s question. “First one’s tech… just like in the legends…”

Glimmer gave up as she groaned then let Adora drop a little to the ground. “Alright Bow, you talk to her. She clearly needs a more subtle approach,” she said. “I am going to keep looking for something break her hands away from the sword.” Glimmer goes behind the wall as it left Bow and Adora to just look at each other than Bow sighs and moves over to Adora. He sees her rope was closer to the sword than before as he kicked it over a bit. 

“Nice try, guess we ruined your plan then huh?” He joked with her a little as he tried to lighten up the mood.

Adora watched him as she could easily take him down. But something about him was off as she did not know why he was so calm around her. 

Bow smile died as he then sighs and then leaned up against the tree. “Alright, then how about we try it this way: Why was a well-trained Horde soldier out in the middle of the night walking around in the Whispering Woods when she knows that they are dangerous and under Bright Moon’s protection?”

Adora looks at him with indifference but was feeling curious to see where his conversation was going. “Well… I had a feeling to come here…” She said as she felt relaxed around him, which was weird because the only other person she ever felt like this was with Catra.

Bow raised an eyebrow but kept going. “You had a feeling? And you just happen to follow that feeling into Rebellion territory and not expect to get caught?”

“Well kinda… wait, Rebellion? What do you mean?”

This confused Bow as well as he continues. “Yes, the rebels of Bright Moon and previous Princess Alliance against the evil invading Horde,” he stated, clarifying his statement.

Adora shook her head in disbelief. “No, no way you guys are rebels. If you were, you would be fighting with Horde against the evil Princesses and helping me take down their Queen.”

This shook Bow a little to his core as this was a first time of hearing the princesses as evil. “I am going to pretend that I did not hear what you just said,” He said as he stiffened up and stood upright. 

Adora was puzzled more by his reaction. “Why would you do such a thing? I told you the truth. Lord Hordak has told us that the forces of Bright Moon are planning an attack on us and forcing our people into enslavement. We are just trying to defend ourselves from their horrible reign.”

Bow was getting irritated from her comment, but he tried to stay calm as he stood more defensively. “You better watch your mouth. I may not look like much, but I can take you on if I had to for the honor of Queen Angella and Princess Glimmer."

“What good have the princesses done? They attack the Fright zone and destroy our production line and capture our soldiers,” Adora states back as she tried to break free this time.

“Attack, you said?” Said a voice that caused both Bow and Adora to look toward it. It was Glimmer as she stood there, holding some vials and some bars in hand before she drops them.

“You think… we are attacking your people…” Glimmer said as she breathes heavily then it grows into a painful chuckle. “That is priceless… coming from a Horde soldier, who clearly has been more sheltered than I have to think that war is good. And to think that capturing other people, innocent civilians and brainwashing them to fight their cause is for the better of Etheria! That is utterly priceless! All for what? A fight that they started picking and attacking because they suddenly could…” Glimmer’s chuckle becomes a bit of manic laughter and tears came down her face.

This freaked Adora out as she could tell that those tears were real. However, she could not process what Glimmer had said as she tried to think of everything in her life in the Fright Zone. All the new recruits that she would see and some of them ever making it through the ranks, or some of them looking scared and confused. “That is impossible… The Horde would never…”

Glimmer calms down as she glares at Adora. “Never attack innocent people that were just trying to defend themselves?” She barked at her. Adora flinched a little as she could tell Glimmer was not having any excuses.

“Y-yes… at least they would not-“

“The tell me: did you not see a group of people that got rounded up today but your precious Horde leaders today?”

Adora pauses and looks surprised as if Glimmer knew. “How did you - ?”

“How did I know?” Glimmer interrupted as she was getting more furious with Adora. “I’ll show you.” She walked over to a piece of wall that was still standing in the rubble of this base. A large branch was placed over it as Glimmer lifted it a little and moved it over to reveal the Horde insignia on it. 

Adora looks shocked as she felt the strength in her knees buckle. “But… this place?”

“It was a Rebellion lookout before Horde soldiers came and attacked today! Some of our best warriors taken away… and you still think that this is all some game to you. Thinking that this is for a noble cause.” Glimmer jeered at her as she was getting teary-eyed again. “I am going to clean up. Bow, try and get that sword from her and let’s hurry out of here” Glimmer sniffled and exclaimed as she then teleports out, leaving Bow and Adora alone. 

Bow watched it all but stayed silent as he then sighed and looked ready for a fight from Adora. But to his surprise, she did not have the same breaming confidence she had before. On her face, he could see all the color was drawn out and looking ghostly. 

“Was… this all new to you?” He asks.

Adora nods as her knees gave out and leaned against the wall again. “This… can’t be true. The Horde… Shadow Weaver would never… well maybe…” She muttered to herself as she gripped the sword more. 

Bow watched her as she processed everything. “You seriously had no idea about how they treated the people outside of the Fright Zone? And don’t know what they were up to?”

“I knew that we would usually get recruits… but I thought they were just new volunteers… I never… I never thought that we were kidnapping others.”

“It never occurred to you that some of your friends would go missing or new people would come in and out of things…” He asked as he tried to see how much she knew.

“No… I just… I always assumed that they were helping with the cause in other ways…” Adora’s sentences began to become fragmented as she is beginning to see things in a different light but kept denying as best as she could. Shaking her head, she steels herself as she jumps up and swings the sword toward Bow, trying to land a strike on him. Bow leaned back from her, but the sword had his hand in the path of her swing. But something happened with Adora’s swing as she looked even more confused about everything happening around her. The sword looked as though it seemed to have phased right through his hand and causing her to stumble a little. 

Utterly baffled, Adora looks at Bow, who looked scared for a second but also was calm. “Yeah, I was a bit freaked out as well.”

“What did you do to it?” She questions as she then stumbles more as she forgot her leg was tied up to a tree. 

“The Sword does not hurt skin,” Bow states as he looks back at her.

“And how would you know that?” She glares at him as she is trying to hide her feeling of helplessness. 

“When we carried you, we tried to be careful… I was not as much as I slipped on a branch… Glimmer tried to catch your sword to avoid cutting either one of us, but it fell… and it phased right through her hand. Well, from the looks of it, the blade phased through.” He said.

Adora looks at him cautiously as she then looks at the sword, still in her grip. She tried letting go of it, but for some reason, she could only let go of it one hand at a time. She used her free hand to get back up and then groans. “Well this is a perfect disaster,” She groans as she was thinking of her escape plan from them. But in her confusion, Adora did not notice that Bow had already pulled his bow and arrows out and aimed to her. 

“I would be careful about what your next few steps will be, as I will not go easy on you," he said in an icy manor.

“I don’t have time to cater to the whims of lying scamps like you,” Adora said as she looked ready to strike with her fist if she needed to. The second was long as both were determined to prove themselves to the other. 

“RUN!” Glimmer screamed as she teleported back and hurried to Bow. Bow lets his guard down a second as he looks to Glimmer. Adora was about to strike when the ground suddenly began to rumble, and she glances over as well. Adora looks shocked as Glimmer began running away from a giant spider with glowing rocks coming out from it’s back. Glimmer is huffing hard as she runs to Bow and grabs his hand to get away from the beast as it charged at them. Bow follows as he hurried out with her. 

However, the spider spat out webbing to block their exit as it screeched loudly. Bow and Glimmer groan from the screech as the spider was suddenly on top of them. Bow looks up as he then shoots an arrow of rope to wrap around its mouth. Glimmer hurries to the side as she shoots something from her fingers that look like a glittery blast of energy. “We have to bring this thing down,” she yells to Bow.

“Got it,” he exclaimed as he got to the other side of it to shoot a net arrow over it. The spider reacts violently as it then swung it’s leg at Bow and knocks him out of the way. It tries to do the same to Glimmer, but she teleports away. She thought she outsmarted the spider only to be flung against a tree, gasping from the fresh bruises Glimmer just got. The spider breaks it’s mouth free as it screeches again and goes after Bow.

While they continued to fight, Adora groans as she brought her bound arms to her head to cover it from the sound of the screeching. It was painful for her to hear as she tried to block out the feeling coursing from her. Gritting her teeth, she manages to turn around and then tug at the rope at her ankle then cuts it off. After freeing herself, Adora beings to run and decides to leave them to deal with the beast. 

The Spider screeched again as it left her immobile and cover her ears. “Save She-Ra.” A deep voice rang in her ears. Adora gasps a second as she heard it again, but this was not the voice talking to her. The voice sounded desperate but defensive as it seemed like it was talking to her. She looks back at the Spider as she saw Bow and Glimmer fighting against it more, but it seems to ignore her. Its screech rang again through her but this time, she did not imagine it. The voice was coming from the spider as it spoke again “Save She-Ra.” 

Glancing down at the sword in her hands, Adora was certain that the only reason the beast was here was because of her. Her mind was spiraling out of control as she knew she had to run, but her heart was telling her to stop this fighting. The groan of pain from Glimmer and Bo was strong as she could see they were not able to defeat it. As the Spider lift its’ giant leg to strike down, Adora’s instincts came in as she charged in, certain this was crazy. Then at that moment, Adora loses herself as she finally spoke the words: “For the Honor of Gray Skull!”

A bright light flashes as a burst of energy explodes from the spot where Adora stood. When the light died down, Bow and Glimmer look up and were awestruck.

Blocking the attack from the spider as its leg was against the blade stood a tall, Amazonian-like woman. Golden blonde hair like the sun flowed in the gust of wind then settled right at the small of her back but was kept together by a golden-winged crown on her head. A red flowing cape flew by as well before settling over her back, but not before Bow and Glimmer could see the armor that the woman wore. It was a simple white dress, but it was adorned with golden rims lining the edges of it as it covered her backside as well. She wore white leggings that went down into her beautiful white boots with golden rims and wings jetting up from the side of it. 

But they could not see the woman’s face as she was still facing the spider as she backed it away from them all. The spider screeched more before looking more docile in the presence of this woman. Bow and Glimmer could feel it as well as they felt this strange but powerful aura radiating off from her. 

“Thank you,” the woman said as it sounded like Adora but kinder and almost angelic like, “I am grateful for you to come to my defense, but you do not need to harm these two. They will not harm me. Please continue to protect this forest, friend.” 

Every word sounded compassionate and sincere as she spoke to the spider and it seemed to obey her. It bowed its head to her before heading back into the forest. When it was gone entirely, the tall woman looks down to Glimmer and Bow as they see her in full view. Bow was shocked, but Glimmer was in complete awe and astonishment as she could not believe what she was seeing.

The woman, holding the Sword of Protection like a true warrior, looks at them softly as they could see her face. It seemed like an adult form of Adora, but regale and more mature. On her dress, the symbol of a golden sun spreads across her chest with a beautiful blue stone design in the middle of it. The dress like armor was form fitting as they could see her toned but feminine body. Around her waist was a golden belt with a large scabbed attached to it. Her arms were visible as they came out from golden shoulder pads that kept the cape in place, but they looked toned and at her wrist were golden wrist gauntlets that reached up to her elbows. Her golden hair fell gentle in front of her face and framed it angelically as she looks to them.

Both Bow and Glimmer stammer a little as they stand up. “Wh-wh-who are you?” Glimmer asked as she felt she already knew but wanted to be sure it was not her imagination. 

The woman smiles more as she locked the sword into the sheath and took both of their hands and helps them up. When they stood up, they realized she was taller than them by a good few feet, but they did not feel intimidated by her. “My name is She-Ra, Defender of Etheria.”


	2. She-Ra: Princess of Power Headcannon Episode 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode Two Head-cannon. While Bow and Glimmer make a promise to help the new She-Ra understand their cause, Adora faces an internal battle about what she has been told all her life and this new responsibility to the world of Etheria.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are enjoying my head-cannons so far. I know that Season 2 will be coming out soon, but I still wanted to put my thoughts out and show you what I wanted to see. And sorry for the delay as well. I tried to make this a bi-weekly thing, but that did not happen as these get really long. 
> 
> Anyway, hope you are still enjoying this series, and I will see you in the next episode.

She-Ra Episode 2

Dumbfounded as they continued to stare at the woman before them, Bow and Glimmer were stammering with their words before the mighty She-Ra. This She-Ra smiled then chuckled in an amused way. “It is alright, you can breathe again,” She permitted with a teasing tone to them as they both let go of their breath and Glimmer pulls back.

“Oh, Gods my mother was right, oh I cannot believe she was right,” Glimmer brought her hands to her head as she began to panic in her head with excitement and confusion and regret of not listening to her mother a little more. 

Bow, on the other hand, was beaming with excitement. “Oh, Gods! She-Ra! Like the She-Ra? The one that can punch through solid marble without breaking a sweat? The She-Ra that with her mighty sword could slice into a mountain?”

“The very same, young warrior,” She-Ra spoke as she smiled more.

“Oh man, I have so many questions. And I don’t know where to start.”

“Well ask quickly as I do not have a lot of time,” She-Ra said as she relaxed a little in her stance. But Bow and Glimmer were confused.

“What do you mean you do not have a lot of time?” Bow asks.

“If I am not in combat or needed to solve a problem, I will not be in this form for long. Also, this is only part of who I really am.”

“Wait, wait a minute! What do you mean a part of you?” Bow asks. “Is it like, a recording of some kind?"

“In a way, this Sword of Protection was created on the home-world, Eternia, and it is meant to contain the wisdom of past heroes and defenders of this land until it’s rightful heir comes to claim it as well as claim the name of She-Ra. All that you are seeing is are recorded memories and skills from my time alive in the previous warrior that was worthy for it,” She-Ra said.

Glimmer looks at her more confused as Bow was still trying to process it all. “So… you are dead…”

“The previous warrior that held the Sword is. But the idea and knowledge of all the heroes before are what makes me the warrior you see before you,” Speaking confidently, She-Ra smiles and looks up in the sky in a playful manner before looking serious. “However, this is all to ensure that the heir is properly aware of the duties that they have to endure with the name of She-Ra, as the Oracle predicted would need to happen.”

“Oracle, who is that?” Glimmer asks.

“The one who foretold that one day, the heir of Grey-Skull will return to fight off the darkness and bring back balance to the universe. Or so I was told then,” the woman said as she was relaxed but still not speaking coherently.

“You keep talking about this heir, who is it? And where can we find them?” Glimmer asks as she is getting a bit impatient but also curious about who this heir could be.

“I cannot say, but I do know that they would be a noble person and a true leader,” She-Ra said as she smiles at Glimmer and Bow. Glimmer blushes a little as she thinks that She-Ra was referring to her and feeling that she could take on the title. She smiles “You really think that-“

“That is again until the sword is reunited with the heir, then will She-Ra truly return,” the woman interrupted Glimmer almost like she was on repeat. This annoyed Glimmer but she still had that sliver of hope. She glanced down at the sword and then back to the woman as she seemed to have shrunken a little. Then, soon after that, the light began to fade a little. “I see that the time is up.” The woman said.

They both freak out a little. “What do you mean your time is up? Is the recording done?”

“For now, but I might be back sooner than you think,” the woman said as the light glowing from her seems to be fading. 

“Wait, you can’t leave! We need you for the Rebellion, to fight the Horde for their misdeeds! And to make them pay for the suffering they caused!” Glimmer exclaimed. She-Ra looked down to her as she put a hand on her head. 

“Little one, you have much more to learn, but I know that you will become a valuable ally,” She said as she looks to Bow as well. “You both must keep the Sword of Protection safe as well as the wielder.”

Bow looks shocked while Glimmer looks repulsed by this request. “You want us to keep that Horde Soldier safe? Why!?” Glimmer demands to know as she felt her hopes ruined, holding back as much of her frustration as she can. 

The She-Ra projection is fading as she is almost back to Adora’s height, but she gently smiles at Glimmer with a pleading look. “All will be answered in time, but for now, you have to trust that she will be valuable to the cause. So please,” the woman’s voice sounds soft as if she was begging more than demanding. Bow and Glimmer were caught off guard by this as they glance to each other. With timid looks, they nod to the woman as her light is almost gone. 

“We will, I promise on my title of Princess of Bright Moon,” Glimmer said.

“And I on my honor as the best bowman in Etheria,” Bow said as he raised his bow a little.

Smiling brightly, the woman nods as she steps back from them. “Thank you, Bow and Glimmer. I appreciate you doing what I could not,” with those last words, the woman took the sword back out and then raised it to the sky. Her body shrinks down, and all the armor and glamor was gone. Leaving Adora in her place, she is passed out and falls to the ground. Glimmer sees this as she lunged and caught her. The Sword was still in Adora’s hand, but it shrunk to a dagger before it fell out.

Bow comes over to pick it up as he was in awe of its sudden change. “Oh man! This is amazing. The possibilities this sword can do. I have to research this when we get back!”

While Bow was geeking out over the dagger, Glimmer is looking down at the fainted Adora as she was conflicted about this. Her eyes showed hatred and fury that this Horde Solider took her chance to become the hero as she wanted to ditch her in the forest. But she also knew that the idol of her past and people, She-Ra, had asked them to watch her. And honor that not many people or creatures could say they got. After laying Adora down on the ground, Glimmer stands up as she walks away for a bit. 

Bow, finishing his random train of thought, looks over to see her getting some space. “Glimmer, you okay?”

Glimmer, shivering in anger right now, grunts a little as she then threw a glitter bomb at a rock and yelled. “Why!? Why does this keep happening!? Why am I never good enough?!” She screamed before huffing to catch her breath.

Bow, flinching from the scream as well as ready to jump in, see her as he holds the dagger in his hand then carefully walks over to her. “Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Everything Bow!” She said as she turns around in a huff, “It is like the universe is against me. I can never please my mom. Everyone thinks that I am just a joke, and now my one chance to be the hero for the rebellion is stolen by a random Horde Soldier that we now have to babysit! It is just like the world hates me and I am just the punching bag!” She said as she yelled then breathes in more, a tear runs down her face.

Bow stood there as he was calm and then offer her a handkerchief calmly. “Feel better now?” He asks softly.

Glimmer looks at him as she then nods and takes it. “A little, still mad.”

“That I can’t blame you on, I get it. It sucks, I am not too thrilled about it either. But maybe there is something we can do to help her to help us."

After wiping her face, Glimmer looks up to him. “What do you mean?”

“She is not like the other soldiers we have faced as she seems to be thinking freely beside being mind controlled, so maybe she has been sheltered her whole life. We might be able to reason to her if we show her our side of this fight,” he said as he was leading her to his point.

“Then, maybe she can help us fight in the war as She-Ra,” Glimmer finished his thoughts as he nods. 

“So, it might not be too bad, we can still make this work,” he said as he smiled at her.

Glimmer nods as she smiled back at him. “You’re right. Maybe this will not be as… where did she go?”

Bow turned around as they both see Adora was gone from her spot and footprints tracking off into the forest back to the Fright zone of it. Bow and Glimmer look to each other, then hurry after her. “Come back here, Soldier!” They both exclaimed.

Adora was running for her life as she was scared, confused and just wanted to get away from Bow and Glimmer. Her heart was racing as her mind was trying to process it all. “Did that really happen? What just happened? Why did that happen? I was just trying to get that voice to shut up. I didn’t sign up for this!” She frantically talked to herself as she tried to find her way back to the air ski. Pushing through the brush as well as the limbs as best she could, Adora did not care for all of the cuts and bumps she was getting along the way.

“Adora, please listen to me,” the voice spoke again. 

“No! I listened to you and look where I am now?! Alone, cold and confused! And not only that, but I turned into some kind of freak in a dress and boots! What on Etheria was that? Who was that?” She demanded as she kept moving. 

“That was the hero you need to be,” the voice stated.

“Oh yeah, and just who was that hero anyway?” Adora hissed at the voice a little.

“She-Ra,” it stated back which caused Adora to stop in her tracks. She paused and looked down as she recalled the memory she had when she was a child. 

“She-Ra… from the legends?”

“That is correct Adora. You are the one to take on the role of She-Ra, the new Defender of Etheria.”

Adora stood there as she was dumbfounded and then shook her head in dismay. “No, this can’t be real. She-Ra is just a myth! There is no way that those stories from all those years ago were real! If she was real, where did she go, huh?”

“The previous warrior that took on the role of She-Ra in place of the heir could not perform her duties as she was deceased.”

Adora looks sadden by this. “How… long was she dead?”

“More than forty years ago. Since then, there has been no true warrior to claim the title. Many have tried, all have failed but you,” the voice said in a calming tone. 

Adora leaned against a tree and then looks to the sky. “What happened to her?”

“I do not recall as that was many years and parts of the event has been a blur to even I,” the voice said. 

“Heh, just my luck to have an annoying voice in my head that is not even useful to tell me what happened, only just vague language and warnings.” Adora snarked as she then looks sad. “Why did the sword choose me?” 

“What do you mean?”

“I… can’t help but feel like I was chosen for this, but I don’t want it. I don’t want others to think I am this legendary hero. I am not ready for it.”

“You can never be truly ready for anything,” the voice said calmly. “But you rise above the occasion and show your true colors when you know what is right and what is just.”

Adora groaned. “Please stop spewing things like that. It is not making me feel any better.”

“Then suppose you would like me not to tell you that you had left the Sword behind with those two people?”

“They can keep it,” Adora said. “It is not like I asked to take on this power. I don’t need it. I already have a lot on my mind.”

“Such as also defending yourself from an incoming arrow,” the voice stated to her. Adora was confused for a second, then she suddenly sees the arrow coming toward her and she ducked. “It seems as we have walked into an ambush.”

“Oh, now you tell me!?” She stated as she then heard another arrow shot, but she could not see where it was coming until it was too close. Adora manages to keep dodges as much as she can, but she soon finds that there are too many arrows coming at her.

“Jump up the tree,” the voice said.

“Don’t tell me what to-“

Adora gets cut off as she realized that a huge rock is getting sent at her. She gasps as she then jumps up and hurries up the tree that she backed into and then tries to get higher up. “Okay, maybe you can keep telling me what to do.”

“I guess we are finally on the same page now,” the voice said as it seemed to chuckle at her expense.

Once Adora was further up in the tree, she pants a little as she tries to figure out her way back to the air ski. “Okay, voice, what do I do now? Any brilliant ideas?” she snapped to herself. 

“Patience, young warrior,” it said.

“Well easy for you to say, I am the one being chased down,” she said as she suddenly saw some figures down below begging to knock the tree down. She gasps as she then sees the tree next to it and then prepped herself for the jump. Taking a deep breath, she closes her eyes and jumps again. 

However, she did not account for these attackers to be as prepared as they were, for as she made the jump, Adora fails to dodge an incoming dart blown at her. She tries her best, but it hits her shoulder. The dart seemed to be laced with fast acting, knock out poison as she started to feel dizzy. Gritting her teeth, she tried her best to fight it as she managed to land on the tree and pants heavily.

“Damn that hurt… what do these rebels use?”

“Some herbal sleep toxin, harmless but fast-acting,” the voice said. 

“Sleep toxin…” Losing control, Adora falls asleep as she has been exhausted from everything else that happened today. She losses her grip on the branch holding her up as she plummets to the ground. 

Suddenly, she is caught in a large net that acts as a restriction, but also like a hammock for her. She is out cold, so she does not notice it. But the things that ambushed her suddenly step out from the shadows into the light. A group of deer-like people stepped forward as they observed their catch. Some of them looked like doe as they were ready to fire arrows at Adora. The young stags, with new horns forming, inched closer to see if Adora was truly asleep and not messing with them. But one figure stepping out the shadows was an older but still young looking stag as he worn battle armor and had more prominent horns than the rest of them. He stands tall as he looks over Adora and sniffs the air around her. Without a word, he nods to one of the does to shoot right at Adora. 

The young doe nods timidly as she takes a breath then aims for her. She shivers a second as she is about to let the bow go.

But in that second before she let go, they here a voice. “Stop!” 

All of them freeze up as they look to where it came from, only to see Glimmer and Bow, holding their hands up calmly not to scare them. Glimmer stands in front as she looks more relaxed then Bow, who was holding the dagger down in his hand to show no harm. 

“Guardians for the forest, we come in peace. I am Princess Glimmer, and I request you lower your bows toward that soldier.” She asked as she was nervous but still trying to come across as authoritatively.

The other does and stags all look at her with confusion as they then turn to their leader, who still had the pause motion to the doe pointing the arrow to Adora. He steps closer to them as he seems towering over them, but he kneels to her a little. “Princess Glimmer, I understand the alliance agreements your mother and my elders made in this rebellion, but I have my orders to capture and kill if necessary and Horde Soldiers that might be a threat to our people. And this one is not only a soldier but a captain no less, making her equally dangerous. Now tell me, why must I break my orders for you?” he asks as he was stern but curious in her reply.

Glimmer takes a deep breath. “That soldier is no ordinary Horde soldier. She is important for the cause,” she said.

The other stags and does all laugh as they found it funny but the lead stares at her more. “How so?” He asks, as he almost motions for the kill, as the young doe looks worried and pulls a little more.

Glimmer looks to him as she then glances to Bow, who nods to her as if he was urging her to say it. She takes another breath then looks back. “She might be the key to bringing back She-Ra,” she whispered to him. 

This news caused the lead stag to flinch in awe and shock, but he still kept his composure. He lowers his hand as the young doe then relaxes. “How certain are you?” he asks

“The dagger,” she said as she motioned to it in Bow’s hand. “We have to talk with your elder, but we believe it will only work for her.” Glimmer grimaced at the uttering of those words, but she had to put on a calm face. 

The lead stag looks up at the dagger as he stands up and takes it from Bow’s hand, who relaxed once it was out of his hand. Turning to the sleeping Adora, he brings the dagger closer to see if it would react differently. To everyone’s surprise, a blue glow shined from the stone as if it knew it was in the presence of Adora. All the young stags and does watch in awe of the light. With this evidence, the lead stag nods to one of them to cut her down. Walking back to Glimmer and Bow, he returns the dagger to her. “Follow us, we will take you to our elders,” He says quietly and makes a path for them to follow. 

The young ones follow the stag leader as they carried Adora. Bow and Glimmer breath with some relief as they follow the herd back to their village. 

“Adora, are you there?” a feminine voice called for Adora.

Adora, waking up in her mental mindscape, looks around as she tries to relax and remembers this place. “Huh, guess I am back here again,” she said as she sits up a little. “What is this place?”

“It is the realm of the inner thoughts,” said the same feminine voice. “I am happy that you were able to make it here.” A small ball of light glows as it came closer than took on a form behind Adora. 

“Make it here? And what are you even talking about?” Adora is about ready to snap as she stops and stares in awe of the figure. She sees the She-Ra she was before she turned back. The woman that reached out to her and took her hand as she smiles at her softly. 

“Wh-who are you?” Adora stammers a little. 

The woman smiles more as she sat down in front of Adora. “I am She-Ra, or more so the idea of She-Ra. You are really She-Ra.”

Feeling her confusion grow, Adora shifts away from this woman claiming to be She-Ra. “Wait, you are not making any sense. How are you She-Ra and yet everyone else is calling me that? And what did you do to me earlier? It felt like I was in some foreign body, yet it was my own. Whatever, what is happening to me?! I deserve some answers!”

The woman was calm as she nods. “I know you deserve answers. And some I can provide, others you will have to discover on your own.” 

“Okay, fine,” Adora said. “First question, how can we both be She-Ra?”

“You are the new She-Ra. The image you see now is a replica of warriors from the past that has taken on the mantel of She-Ra until the true heir of Eternia comes to claim the sword.”

“Okay, next questions: who is the heir of Eternia?”

“That I do not know, as I fear as the last known heir had disappeared thousands of years ago, but the bloodline is still living. That is all I can say,” the woman said as she sounded sad. She looks down as she looks at her hands and hums a tune for a moment. Adora sees this as she sighs then nods. 

“Next question then: how did you take over my body like that?”

The image shots her head back up as she returns to her calm self. “Simple, I fused myself to your body as per other warriors before, and helped you become one with the spirit.”

Adora groans as she leaned her head into her hand. “That is not the answer I was looking for.” 

“What were you looking for then?”

“I was looking for a more tangible reason,” she retorted back. “You can’t expect me to believe that you just imparted your spirit on to me and I suddenly became you.”

“Well that is what I did,” the woman said. 

Adora gets annoyed. “Find, next questions: why me?”

“Why you what?” the woman queries.

“Why did you pick me to be She-Ra?”

“I never chose you, it was already in you,” she said as she smiled at her calmly and closed her eyes as she was pleased.

Adora was stunned by this reaction as she sits back a little. “I guess you are no help.”

“I told you before, some things I can answer, others you will have to learn on your own,” she said as she begins to fade. 

Adora looks back at her as she freaks out. “What is going on?”

“It seems you are beginning to wake up, but no worries, will be safe when you wake up, probably just in a daze though,” she said as she fades more."

“But I still have so many other questions,” Adora reached for her as suddenly she began to fall.

“You will find that answer, Adora. Trust yourself and what you think is right.” The woman vanished as she suddenly was gone and Adora was in the dark. 

Shooting up as she pants a little, Adora wipes the sweat from her face. “I really need to figure out how to get used to that,” she said as she muttered to herself. Peaking through the gaps of her hand over her face, Adora realized that she was in some cell made of out clay and metal bars. Glancing down, she finds herself on a bed as she looks at a blanket on her. Feeling the texture of it, it felt like wool but also was smooth to the touch. Adora never got a blanket like this as the Horde just had thin sheets that had too many holes in them. She patted it for a little longer as she then looks to see her jacket was off her back and hanging up on the side of the room. 

Getting up slowly as she still felt dizzy from the sleep toxin, Adora surveyed the room more to make sure if it was not a trap. As she reached for her jacket, she noticed the door that missed her attention earlier was beginning to open. Reacting fast, Adora rushes back into the bed to pretend to sleep. 

Closing the door as they entered, Adora could hear that it was some hoofed creature, young and about a small build. She listened as she kept her eyes closed a bit longer. The sound stops as Adora tries to quiet her heart from racing.

“You can wake up now, you are not fooling these ears,” said a young female voice, teasing Adora a little.

Adora slowly opened her eyes as she then looks to see it was doe person. She smiled as her hair-like fur ruffled a little and there were some freckles on her face. Her brown eyes were wide, but they still looked cute to anyone that saw them. Her ears were up a little in a cautious position as she was close to Adora, but she did not have any weapons on her from the looks of it, but just a clothe and some kind of food on a tray. 

Adora sits up a little as she looked at the person holding her captive and felt no hostility from this doe person, so she began to relax. “I take it you heard me moving,” she said. 

“That and your heartbeat,” the doe said as she pulled a small stool over and sat beside Adora. “It was running a bit wild. I am sure you are normally good at hiding it, but I can tell you are scared and unsure of what you need to do.” She offers Adora a cloth to help her wipe the sweat on her face.

Adora looks down at it for a moment as she then takes it and wipes her face. “How long have I been out?” 

“A couple of hours, the toxins left your body about two hours ago, but you seemed to be really tired. Were you out in the woods all night?” the doe asked as she looks at Adora curiously. 

Adora looks to her as well then nods. “Yeah, something like that. Is it morning?”

“In an hour it will be morning.”

Adora flinches as she then realized that she was in big trouble. She remembered that her big mission was today as the start of the new force Captain. And yet, here she was, sitting in a village that has taken her in as a prisoner and she still did not understand anything about the sword or the voices in her head. She begins to think of a way to escape as she kept her expression calm to hide from this young doe’s prying intentions. 

But the doe just watched her as she then offered the strange fruit to Adora, who looked at it with confusion. “What is that?” 

“It is a fruit, would you like some?”

Adora looks at it weirdly. “Fruit?”

“Have you never had fruit before?” the Doe asked her. 

“We ate only the bare minimum to keep our strength and gained the rest through training. As we only take what is needed in the Horde,” Adora stated as a matter of fact as she expected this young doe to understand, only for her to cock her head in confusion. 

“That sounds kinda boring and plain, doesn’t it?” she asks as she offered it again to Adora. “Here, try it. I am sure you will like it.”

Adora was hesitant at first as she thought it could be laced with more sleep toxins, but her stomach began to growl a little as she took it and but right into the fruit. To her surprise, the fruit was sweet tasting. It was nothing like Adora every tried before. Bursting with flavor, she took another bite as it spilled some juice. She licked a little from her lips, and the liquid was tangy but still sweet as she gives a bright smile toward the Doe. “What is this?”

“It is called a Mangoon, we grow them here in the village,” she said and smiles. “I told you that you would like it.” 

Adora looks over at her then looks down at the fruit and takes another bite as she realized that she had lived her whole life without even a tasting something like this. She wondered if there was anything else she had missed. 

While Adora and the doe were talking, Bow and Glimmer were watching from a window with the Stag leader from before as they observed them. Bow smiles a little as he watched her eat while Glimmer was surprised by how Adora reacted to a mangoon for the first time. 

“Wow, I didn’t realize that she was able to show anything let alone excitement,” Glimmer said with a bit of sass in her tone. 

“Glimmer,” Bow said as he gave her a bit of the stank eye to watch her words. 

“What? I was just pointing out that it seems this soldier has really been overly sheltered from the world that she never knew what a mangoon is. Kinda strange.”

“Well strange will not protect her for long,” the stag said as he looks to Glimmer. “I will have guards on standby and follow her through the village, but we must talk with them about this little matter you mentioned before.”

“Of course,” she said. “Please, lead us to your elder.”

“I want to stay a little longer,” Bow said as he looks to Glimmer. 

Glimmer froze a little as he said that. “What? Why?”

“Someone needs to stay with her and makes sure she is okay. We don’t know much about her, and she will probably need someone that is at least familiar to her,” Bow said clearly. “Besides, I want to see what she does.”

“But I need your-“  
“You will be fine. I will come sooner after I watch a little.” He said as he then put a hand on her shoulder. “You got this. I know you do.” He said.

Glimmer looks to him as she takes a deep breath then nods as she walks with the leader stag as Bow watches Adora a few more minutes. 

The doe offers a handkerchief to Adora to clean up as there was mangoon juice all over her lips. Adora looks at it then slowly took it and used it. This annoyed the doe a little as she seemed to linger at looking at Adora some more. 

Adora looks to her as she was confused about what she did. “What?”

“You’re supposed to say thank you when someone offers something,” the doe huffed a little.

“Oh, sorry,” Adora said as she then nods. “Thank you.”

“You really are not used to common etiquette, huh?”

Adora looks to her then shook her head a little. “When you live in the Horde, you are more focused on your survival more, showing only respect to those that earned it.”

“Oh… so you guys are really rude to each other then?” The doe said as she was confused.

“Well no, but we just have to respect those that are stronger than ourselves. Otherwise, there is no point in being polite to someone that is out to bring you down.”

“So, you don’t have any friends?” 

“I do,” She snapped a little. The doe flinches a little as she looks worried that she made Adora mad. Adora saw that she scared her and sighed. “Sorry, I just… I don’t know what to do or what to think.”

“About what?” The doe asks, as she senses Adora’s uncertainty, and spoke in a soft tone. 

“What I am doing here, and why I am suddenly conflicted about everything I ever learned about,” She said as she lays back down. “I don’t know. I never did things on a whim. And yet the one time I did, I get stuck in a blast attack, I have a voice in my head telling me to get a sword in the middle of enemy territory, and I become some Amazon with a makeover, I get captured again, and here I am gushing over all of this to a doe! Why am I gushing? I never gush!” Adora exclaimed as she then took a few long deep breathes. 

The doe looks at her with more curious looks but just sat there with no other expression. “Feel better?” She asks. 

Adora looks over at the doe, as she was so calm, and this just made Adora want to tear up. “How are you so calm about all of this? Why are you treating me with kindness?”

The doe smiles. “I believe that all creature of Etheria, be it allies or enemies, are still vulnerable and scared. We pretend to be strong because we are afraid to be weak or show it as we might be considered worthless. But even so, holding it inside is never good, as you are a good example,” She said as she offered Adora a cloth to clear the tear that was coming down her cheek. “Even so, I believe, even if it is showing a little kindness, no matter who the creature or person is, it might mend the broken connections we have all made.” 

Adora looks at the doe a little more in awe of her words and kindness, looks at the cloth as she took it and sat up; wiping away the tears.  
Bow saw what he needed to see and smiles as he felt everything was going to be okay as he left to find Glimmer. 

Taking a moment to catch her breath, Adora relaxes as she smiled to the doe, who smiled back. “I didn’t get your name,” Adora stated with a small smile. 

The doe smiles as she stuck her hand out again. “My name is Maggie.” 

Adora smiles as she took Maggie’s hand. “My name is Adora.”

“Nice to meet you, Adora, I hope we can be friends,” Maggie said as her ears perked up with excitement. 

Adora nods. “I would like that very much too.” She said. 

“Say, why not come out and see the village?” Maggie suggests as she stands up. 

“Oh, I don’t think that would be a good idea,” Adora said but not because she was nervous of the people, but of herself. She genuinely did like the companionship that Maggie has given her, but she also had a duty to uphold, and given the bars around this small hut, she was still considered a prisoner. 

“If you’re thinking of escaping, you might not get that lucky,” Maggie said as she pointed to a stag guard walking by the door. “But this is just to show you something new. I think you deserve that much,” She said as she smiles.

Adora, stupefied by the innocence and yet wit of this doe, just looks down as she looks conflicted more. “Still, it might not be-“

Their conversation is cut short as stag guards come in as they look to Maggie to move to the side. “By order of the chief, we are to escort the prisoner for some questioning.”

Maggie looks to them as she turns to Adora, who looked ready to spring into action, even though she still felt dizzy. Maggie steps in front of them as she then looks up to them. “Please, let me do it,” she said. 

Everyone looks confused as this little doe stood in front of the two guards, especially Adora as she did not think she had it in her to do something like that.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” They ask.

“Of course, I am perfectly capable,” She said as she looks up at them with a stern voice.

They both look to each other as they then nod and then give Maggie the rope that they brought to bind Adora. Maggie took it with a small grimace as she then turned to Adora. “Sorry, but I have to follow my orders,” she said. 

Adora, seeing the pain in Maggie’s eyes a little of doing this, nods as she sighed and offered her hands respectfully. “I understand, at least, I know that you mean well,” she said to Maggie and closed her eyes a little as she waited for the rope. 

The stag guards were surprised and impressed by this feat as they let Maggie finish. When Maggie is done, Adora slid her legs off the bed and got up slowly and respectfully. Then they both walked out as Maggie held the rope that binds Adora and leads her to the bright light. 

Wincing from the light, at first, Adora batted her eyes to recover some vision. And when it returned, she was in awe of what she saw. A woodland village that seemed to be thriving. Young deer children were running around, playing happily and throwing a bouncy ball around. Some of the elder deer children played as well, but they looked to be sparring but still had some playful manner. Some older stags that had their horns almost grown in as they practiced head butting tactics while the does all practiced archery. Adora heard a small explosion happen as she turned to see some deer folks gathering around a cauldron, as they looked to be testing and using scientific experiments with that they had. 

But what surprised Adora the most out of all were the numbers of families that were together in this village. All of them laughing, playing, and enjoying each other’s company. Some seem to be relaxing in the warmth of the morning sun while others ran as they were fetching to get food for breakfast, but even so. Adora just could feel the happiness and loving nature the deer people all had for each other. It was like nothing she had ever experienced before.

Maggie noticed her awestruck look. “I see that this all seems new to you,” she said as they slowly made their way to through the village.  
“A little. I have never seen so much life and excitement,” she said then stopped. “Well, not like this anyway.”

“I am not surprised as this place is heavily guarded,” Maggie said as she seemed a bit worried in her voice, but it was too subtle for Adora to notice as she was in still in awe. 

“Even so, the Fright Zone has the same thing, but this feels more… I don’t know how to put it, but homey, like something from a dream. I wonder if there is ever a chance for the Fright Zone to be this cheery” Adora pondered a little.

Maggie was silent, but she nods with a smile. “Maybe, we can change things for the better.” She led Adora through the village as everyone stopped then stared at Adora a little. Some of them stare a little as some scurried away and out of sight of their pathway.

Adora noticed this behavior as she was confused. “Is something the matter?”

“Many people here are… not too keen on giving a Horde soldier the time of day until they have seen the elder, our chief.” Maggie said as she kept her head tall but still smiling to Adora. 

“Oh, I guess that makes sense,” Adora for some reason, kept forgetting that she was and still a part of the Horde. She could not tell why this makes her feel so guilty when yesterday, it made her beam with pride.

“Hey, no matter, we can talk about it more with the chief,” Maggie said with a smile as she looks at Adora. “We will figure this out.”

Adora, looking conflicted, nods as she smiles at her new companion and stayed silent as they kept going, still feeling the icy stares on her back. 

Back in the Fright Zone, Catra was also feeling an icy cold stare down her back, but she did not flinch or show emotions. She knew who was watching her, but she stayed still, waiting for their reply. 

“Catra, where is Adora?” The person was Shadow Weaver as she looked at her with disgust through her mask.

Catra stayed silent and still as she was aware of what would happen if she said anything wrong, but she knew it was the truth. She swallowed her fear as she opened her mouth. “I… don’t know.” Catra tensed up at the right time as she felt a slap to the face impact her cheek. She looked away but did not cry, even though it stung.

“Don’t lie to me, you whelp!” Shadow Weaver exclaimed! “I know you know her better than anyone, so you better tell me where she went!”

Catra’s eyes narrowed a little as she looked back to Shadow Weaver. “I don’t know. I know where she was going but nothing about what happened to her. She said she would be back by morning, and that was it.”

“Where did she go? Why did she leave in the middle of the night?! Why didn’t you stop her?! Explain to me,” Shadow Weaver grabbed Catra’s jaw tightly as she was growing furious with Catra. Catra winced as she was still in pain and looked at Shadow Weaver with some anger as well. 

“I think I know where your precious Adora is, Shadow Weaver,” a silver-toned voice came from behind Shadow Weaver. Both Shadow Weaver and Catra are surprised by that same voice. But for Shadow Weaver, she groaned with disgust as she looked over while Catra saw it almost as a sign of relief. 

The woman in black armor came up to them as she had a saunter in her step. She smirked as she seemed to have some insider information and was too eager to keep it to herself. Soon, she was right beside Shadow Weaver and Catra as she then had a bit of a scowl on her face from what was in front of her.

“Shadow Weaver, I thought you were better than this,” the woman mocked as she took the hand gripping Catra’s face and lifted it away. “Laying a hand outside of combat, you truly have gone desperate.”

Grunting a little as she brought her hand back, Shadow Waver rubbed where the woman clutched it. “What does it matter to you, Kila? This child is under my guidance. I will do as I please!”

The woman, now known as Kila, chuckled at Shadow Weaver’s remarks. “Oh, so you would rather have tattered warriors than have them at their peak to follow you, so pathetic.”

Shadow Weaver let out a low growl at Kila. “What do you want?”

“I have come to tell you some news about your precious Adora, as I fear she has been captured by the enemy. I have already determined her location and preparing troops for you to go and get her,” she said. 

Catra flinches a little as she was fearful for Adora a little. But Shadow Weaver was in awe as if hearing her precious jewel has been finally found. “Where?” Shadow Weaver asked as if she was salivating at the idea of getting Adora back soon. 

“In the Whispering Woods, your guards already have the location, which – even to my own surprise, is the very location you were planning on raiding today,” Kila said calmly. 

“I see, it seems the fates are in my favor today,” She said as she hurried off. 

“I suggest you take Catra with you,” Kila said as she put a hand on Catra’s shoulder. Both Catra and Shadow Weaver look at Kila with some confusion and horror at the idea of it. 

“Why would I want to take that little whelp with me? She will only slow me down,” Shadow Weaver said. 

“Perhaps, or with her keen sense of smell and hearing, she might be able to find her faster than any of your measly guards,” Kila said as she seemed to compliment Catra, who was silent in awe that someone seemed to be defending her skills. 

Shadow Weaver looks furious as she then gives in. “Fine, but this is the only time I will allow it,” she said as she hurried off. 

“By all means,” Kila smirked as she watched Shadow Weaver leave in a huff then looks to Catra. “I hope she did not damage you too much,” Kila’s demeanor changed again to the gentle person that Catra met last night. 

Unsure of what to think or how to feel, she shook her head. “Nothing new, I am fine.”

Kila nods as she stepped away. “I did warn you, didn’t I?” 

Catra flinched a little as she looks scared but also mad at Kila. “Your stupid prediction did not come true! You said it to Shadow Weaver yourself. She is captured!” 

“True, however, who am I to say if it came true or not? How do you know if I was lying to Shadow Weaver, or if she genuinely did not change while she was away from the Horde’s embrace? How do you know if you do not look for yourself?” She asks with a sly smile. 

This confused Catra more as she then bit her lip a little then rushes past Kila to get her battle armor, praying that she was still trying to mess with her. Kila watched as she speeds by with her devilish smile on her face and Catra then disappeared.

“Do you really think she will be a worthy candidate?” A metallic voice said from the shadows, and a pair of red glowing eyes stared at her. 

“I know my instincts are right on this one, she has so much dependence on Adora, she will be easy to break and mold as I see fit in the right time,” Kila stated as she leaned on her back foot and showed a relaxed side to her. “Besides, she is a child. I know what it was like to be like her. Tell our Lord I will be reporting to him when I have gotten more evidence.” 

“As you wish, Commander Kila,” the voice said and scurried away. Kila watched as she then walked up to the barrack door and touched it. She scowled at it more before disappearing down the hallway.

“Sir, with all due respect, you do not know what we have seen, and what this girl is capable of,” Glimmer said as she was trying to keep herself in check but was getting annoyed with the village elder and chief.

Sitting across from Glimmer, an old and wise stag sat giving Glimmer his fullest attention. Although this stag had mostly white fur with patches of silver gray in his beard and his build looked frail and thin, he did not act like an old man, but rather a tattered war veteran. His horns were massive, so many prongs protruded from them, showing off his age and strength. The old stag had a staff in his hand to support himself, but he held a serious look on his face a strong leader should. He was also looking down at the Sword of Protection as it was still in its dagger form and looked nothing special.

“Princess Glimmer, with all due respect as well,” bellowed the chief stag, “I understand you are part of the Rebellion Army, so you have no reason to lie to us, but I have to put the well being of my people into consideration as well. Even on a hunch that you might have found a way to bring the legendary She-Ra back to life, I have to see this for myself to believe you."

“But we do not know how she did it. That is why we need time to make sure that –“

“Even with time, the news that we have a Horde Soldier in our captivity will dampen façade we have carefully created to keep ourselves safe. And to be frank, I have seen too many of my kind slaughtered in battles to know I can never trust anyone from the Horde again.” He said with a gruff tone. 

Glimmer looks worried as she held her tongue back. Bow was with her now as he then raised his hand to the old stag as a motion to speak. The chief looks to Bow. “Speak, young archer.”

“Well sir, I understand your sentiment as I know it is hard to let go of all that pain, but even so, if there is a chance, we can finally have something to bring back balance to the world, shouldn’t we try to take it?” He spoke calmly. 

The old stag looks at him as he then glanced back to the sword. The younger leader stag looks up at his elder as he coughed a little to speak. “Chief, I suggest we wait till the prisoner is here so we can fully make a decision.”

“Do you side with them?” The chief huffed at the younger one. 

The younger one then flinched as he straightened up from the recoil. “Well, sir, if I had to make a small observation, I think that there might be something more to this one. As even with the best training of the Horde, they never even managed to avoid our arrows. But this one was able to predict most of our attacks, clumsily but still managed to give us a bit of a chase,” he said.

This information seemed to irritate the old chief as he then picked up the dagger to observe it more. 

Glimmer looks to him as she raised her hand to speak as he sees her hand and waits for her reply. “Please, just give her a chance sir,” she said. “You are not the only one putting their reputation on the line.” She said as she sounded serious as well.

Hearing her concerns, the old chief nods with a huff. “I will speak to this soldier and determine her intentions for myself. But I make the final decision.” 

They all nod in agreement as there was a knock at the Hut structure of the door as one of the stag guards that escorted Adora and Maggie came in. “Chief, we have brought the prisoner.”

“Bring her in,” he said. Glimmer and Bow look to each other as they moved a bit to the side to let Adora be in front. But they were shocked to see how calm Adora was as Maggie brought her in, bound and silent. Maggie walks to chief and bows to him before she moved to let Adora be the only one in front of him. 

Glancing up at him, Adora could feel the air of disapproval in the old stag’s presence, but she just stayed calm and kept her head down. The chief looks at her then used his staff to push the dagger to under her gaze.

“Do you know why you are here, Horde soldier?” He spoke with a gruff undertone of disgust but still query. 

Adora looks at the dagger as she then sighs. “I believe so,” she said. 

“Tell us then, if you think so,” he demanded.

Adora took a deep breath as she looked to Maggie a little then to Bow and Glimmer as she finally looked up at the chief. “You want me to prove that I am some warrior hero of legend,” she said calmly. 

“And let me guess, you do not believe you are,” he stated, this made everyone a bit on edge.

Adora looks at him as she was not sure what to say. “I… I don’t believe it… but…”

“But?” This confused the chief a little. 

“But yet, everyone thinks I am. And I can’t prove it. I don’t even think I am the right person.”

“You doubt yourself, Adora,” the voice said in Adora’s head. 

“Now is not the time,” Adora whispered to herself, but the deer people all picked this up. The chief particularly as he was getting angry over this. 

“Who are you talking to?”

“Nothing, sir,” Adora said. 

“But I am not nothing, and I have to warn you about something,” the voice said.

“Seriously, can this wait?” Adora whispered to herself again. 

“Who are you talking to?” The chief gets up as he stands a bit towering over everyone. He looks at Maggie. “Did you check if she was wearing anything on her?”

“I did,” she said as she was confused as everyone else was.  
He looks to Bow and Glimmer as he was getting furious. “Did you two set this up?”

“No! Nothing sir,” Glimmer said as she was sincere and freaked out by Adora’s mumbling, who now looks to be in an argument with herself. 

“Then explain to me what you are talking about, Horde scum!?” he barked at Adora, as he was getting impatient.

Adora was not paying attention anymore as her face was in shock of what she was hearing then gets up quick. “Everybody down!” She exclaimed then tackled the old chief down. Everyone was in shock and horror but had no time to react when suddenly a boom was heard, and a rush of wind came out of nowhere and caused the hut to crumble. 

There was a ringing in Adora’s ears as she was trying to regain her senses. She looks around as she realized she tackled the chief, as she was lying beside him. Getting up carefully, as she felt sore from the blast, Adora leans close to his chest to check if he was still breathing. Hearing his heartbeat, Adora was glad to see this, but she could not relax for long. As she realized that she and he were under rubble covering them for the most part and she was still bound. Looking for a way out, she got up and began to climb over some of the rubble and even tunneled out from the cover on top of them. 

When she got free, however, she wished she didn’t as her heart sank a little. The village was running rampant as she saw young children running in fear, older deer folks guarding the young as lasers fell from the sky. They raised shield as some tired to get to safety while others were gunned down. Adora noticed that a lot of them were getting into battle formation and beginning to fire arrows at an enemy that Adora could not see. But her ears could not be deceived as she heard the sound of air skis taking flight and hovering over the village and shooting nets over the deer people. Some even shooting lasers down at the adults and caused them to fall from heights and it made a horrid sound to Adora’s ears as they hit the ground. It all made her sick to her stomach. 

Then she looked around for Maggie, Bow, and Glimmer as she was not sure of what happened to them. Looking at her bound hands, she then scurried up on her feet to find something. Only to be stopped in her tracks as a large tank came in front of her and seemed to have its cannon aimed right at her. 

But while Adora raised her hand hoping they did not shoot at her; the cannon froze as the top of the tank opened to show a familiar face. Catra looks at her and smiles. 

“Adora!” She said as she jumped out, wearing her battle armor and then smiles as she comes over to hug her. “I was so worried about you. I thought you were taken and hurt.” She said. 

Adora nods as she sighed with relief and leaned into her hug. “Oh Catra, you have no idea how much I needed a friend.” 

“Well duh, you should have let me come with you, so you would not have gotten into this mess.” Catra jabbed at her playfully as she used her claws to break the rope that bound Adora. 

Rubbing her wrist, Adora then nods as she looks to Catra. “Catra, why are you guys here?”

“To get you silly,” she said as she led her back into the tank. “Come on, we should have you get checked with the rest of the fleet.”

“But no one knew where I was beside you, and how did you guys find me? Why is the whole fleet here as well? I thought we were attacking a vicious rebellion base.”

“Don’t know but Shadow Weaver said that you were going to be raiding this place anyway. All the more reason to come and get you,” she said as they went back to the main fleet.

Adora felt the disgust she had before grow more and more in her stomach as she realized what Catra said. “We… should go talk to Shadow Weaver,” she said. 

Catra, confused and annoyed at the idea, showed concern. “Why? I only came to get you. We should get you to the sick bay and checked on.”

“Catra, please,” Adora said with anger in her tone. “I have to speak to Shadow Weaver now. There has been a mistake.”

Catra looks at her friend as she heard the anger in her tone and then nods. “Okay, okay, we’ll go see her,” she said as she then ordered the soldier that was driving the tank to take them there. Catra stayed quiet as she could feel a shift in Adora’s temperament, but she did not want to admit it to herself that maybe Kila was right about something. Adora was not paying attention to Catra’s expression as she was more determined to figure out what was going on. Gripping her hand tightly, Adora steeled herself to stand in front of Shadow Weaver with all the questions that were going through her head. 

Coughing a little from the debris as well as straining herself, Glimmer huffs as she, Bow and the young stag managed to get out of the blast but still took some of the blow. She looked around as she tried to figure out what to do next. Bow coughs as he turned to Glimmer.

“What happened?” He huffed. 

“It looks like it was a surprise attack from the Horde,” she said as she sees as the fighting seems to have stopped but not out of victory but out of a loss as many of the deer people seem to be wrangled in or forced at gunpoint to give up. 

“So she led them to us,” the younger stag said as he coughed as well and laid where he was. 

“No, I don’t think so. She looked as surprised we all did. But something seemed to have tipped her off that the attack was coming,” she said. 

“You think that She-Ra might have told her?” Bow asked as he prepped himself for a fight. 

“Maybe… I don’t know, but one thing is for sure, we need She-Ra in this fight,” Glimmer said as she then looked back to where the blast attack was. She groaned. “I wish I grabbed the dagger before I teleported us all out.”

“Lucky for us,” the stag said as he could see her forming a plan, he sits up a little and showed he grabbed it, “I never forget to grab a weapon,” he said as he groaned when he relaxed. Bow noticed he was bleeding badly. He rushed over and then began to bandage him. 

“Stay still, you will lose more blood,” he said. 

“I have to fight,” he said. “My leader would never forgive me for not taking a stance,” he said. 

“I am sure he would never forgive you if you die because of a bomb,” Glimmer said as she came over to him and offered Bow her cape to patch him up. “But for now, as captain of the rebellion, I order you to stay put.” Glimmer looked at him with a stern look but a compassionate look, leaving the stag speechless then relax more.  
“I guess I will have to follow your lead for now,” he gently spoke.

Bow finished as he managed to stop the bleeding more but lays the stag down. “Stay here, and stay quiet so they might not see you.”

“No problem here,” he sighed and closed his eyes to rest. Bow covered him a little to try and help his chances. Glimmer watches the soldiers as she tries to find Adora. 

“Do you see her?” Bow ask as he was right behind her.

“No, but I have a feeling I know where they are taking her,” she said as her voice cracked with fear. 

“To the front of the fleet,” Bow said as he knew as well. “We should retreat…” 

“I know… but I have a plan, a crazy one, but it might work,” Glimmer said. 

“You sure you want to do this?” He asked her. 

Glimmer looks up to him. “I am sure, the only question I have for you is: do you have my back?”

Bow stares at her a second then pulled out his golden bow and opened it up, ready for battle. “Always,” he said. Glimmer smiled as she grabbed his shoulder then teleported them away. 

At the front of the fleet under a tent that they set up, Shadow Weaver was talking to her guards and captains as they were discussing their progress. But it was getting interrupted as some soldiers were causing a ruckus. Shadow Weaver looks back to see Adora and Catra making their way to her, Adora with fury in her eyes and her glide. Catra tried to calm her friend in as she was not sure what had gotten into her. But Shadow Weaver did not notice as she seemed thrilled to have Adora back.

“Adora, you have been found,” She said with a pleasant tone. “Oh, how we worried that something awful happened to you.”

“I am fine,” she barked back as she now faced to face of her. Catra was a little behind her as she wanted to make sure to pull Adora away in case things went south. 

“That is good to hear,” Shadow Weaver seems to be oblivious to the tone in Adora’s voice. “Now that you are back, I want to show you the plans we have come up with.” She motioned to Adora to look over some plans on a table before them. 

“Shadow Weaver, there has been a mistake!” Adora states as she stood tall. 

Everyone stops as they heard Adora state this and look at her with confusion. The two guards by Shadow Weaver look worried as they see Shadow Weaver flinch and then turn fast back to Adora. “What are you talking about Adora?” she said. 

“I am saying that this village is not a dangerous Rebel village. It is a peaceful village. Everyone here is just trying to defend themselves. I have been within their walls, and while I was a prisoner, at least they were hospitable to me. I do not think they mean harm."

Taking a moment to process what she said, Shadow Weaver then chuckles at Adora’s comment. “Oh Adora, you must have suffered a hit to the head to believe that rebels can show any hospitality. There are cruel by nature and do not want to even believe in compromise.”

Adora hears this as she looks down and feels more conflicted. “But… I did meet one. She was kind and sweet to me. She said that if we show kindness to each other, maybe we can finally bring people together.”

Shadow Weaver is silent before laughing hard and looks at Adora with a pitiful look. “Adora, you have been fed a lie. Kindness will not win a war, only those with power and a drive to take it will win.”

“But what if we can avoid a war? I thought that was what we have been training for is to avoid it,” she said as she realized that Shadow Weaver’s own words are beginning to contradict herself. Catra watched her friend in awe and uncertainty of what Shadow Weaver was going to do when she heard that. 

Shadow Weaver noticed this as well as she was about to remark. Suddenly, a soldier comes forward while they were dragging some deer person with a bag over their head. “Shadow Weaver, we found someone of high status in this village,” they said as they forced the person down to kneel.

Shadow Weaver chuckled with delight as she nods and looks over her shoulder to Adora. “I will prove my points. No matter what I have said before, there is one absolute truth you should learn Adora: Power is the only thing that matters in this world.” She said as she made her way over the deer person and pulled the bag off. 

As the bag fell, Adora was even more disgusted of what happening as she watched in horror. The deer person they managed to find was Maggie, who was battered and bruised. She looks up with tears in her eyes but nothing but calm look in her face. 

Shadow Weaver makes Maggie look up at her. “Why do you not cry in anger or hate?” Shadow Weaver said as she smirks with delight. Maggie, still in pain grimaced, but she glanced at Adora, who was standing in fear of what was happening, she smiled then looks back at Shadow Weaver. 

“I don’t hate, or show anger… even to those I hate, I have to smile bravely for my people. Because, I know that kindness still lies in all of us, even behind the mask we wear,” she said softly. 

Unsatisfied by that answer, Shadow Weaver lets go of Maggie’s face and then begins to cast a spell. Adora tries her best to rush over, but Catra holds her back. Shocked, she looks back at Catra then to Maggie as Shadow Weaver hits her with her red lighting attack. The screams of pain that Maggie gave off rang through Adora’s ears as she was looking at this cruelty. 

“Shadow Weaver, please stop! She did nothing wrong!” Adora yells at her. 

“She is a rebel, and all rebels must suffer,” Shadow Weaver said as she looks at Adora before looking back at Maggie, as she was huffing with pain. Shadow Weaver starts to cast another spell again.

Adora snaps her attention to Catra, who was still worried about what was happening to her friend. “Catra, you have to let me go. I can’t let this go on any further.”

“Why do you care so much about a rebel?” Catra asks over the sound of Maggie’s scream again. Adora looks over at her when she looks in horror. 

“How can you not care that this is wrong?” She snapped back at Catra. 

Catra looks at her friend confused. “What happened to you? You never gave much thought about this before,” she said.

Adora realized this sentiment was right as she felt torn between what she has known and what she has learned as well. But she could not form her word as she looked back at Maggie and something in her heart was telling her to go and protect her. Feeling guilt building in her heart to its breaking point, Adora suddenly flipped an unsuspected Catra over her shoulder and on to the ground. Then dashing over as she grabbed a dagger from a nearby soldier, she came between Maggie and Shadow Weaver as she was about to send another blast toward the young doe. 

Shadow Weaver halts as she still had a blast in her hands but stops as Adora was in her way. “Adora, what are you doing? Get away from her.”

“I will not,” she barked back as she held the dagger in an offensive position. 

“Adora, I am ordering you to get out of the way,” she said as she raised her hand for the blast. 

“Adora, it is okay, you have an order to follow, it is okay,” Maggie whispered to her, her voice strained from the screams she let out. 

Adora, feeling guilty for everything that was happening, grits her teeth as she then steeled herself. “I don’t care. I will not let you hurt an innocent person!” 

Catra looks at her with a bit of confusion and hurt as she heard that, struggling to get up a little. 

Shadow Weaver, on the other hand, was getting tired of this insubordination as she grunts and looked ready to fire. Adora was bracing for it. 

“For the Honor of Gray Skull,” a voice familiar to Adora rang over all of this. Everyone looks over at the direction of the voice. Everyone looked at confusion as they saw Glimmer standing there with the dagger in her hand and trying to look menacing. It took everyone a moment to get themselves together as they then point their laser guns toward her.

Glimmer gulped a little. “Worth a shot, now Bow!” She yelled as she teleported away.

Suddenly, a smoke arrow hits the ground in rapid succession. The soldiers begin to scramble as they try to find Glimmer as she teleported everywhere in the smoke. But she was too quick, and the smoke was getting thicker. 

Shadow Weaver, growing ever more impatient, yells in anger and shoots her spell but it hit nothing.

Adora held Maggie’s shoulder as she was still defensive but was shocked when Glimmer suddenly appeared in front of her. “Hiya,” Glimmer said as she grabbed Adora and Maggie and teleported away from the site. Before Shadow Weaver could do anything, she realized they were gone then yells more and shakes the ground as she let magic pour out of her. 

“Find her!” Shadow Weaver commanded. The soldiers all nod as they hurry through the smoke to find Adora. Catra got up, but she waited as she heard something. Her ears flick up as she looked around, and then she caught a scent. While Shadow Weaver was looking away, she snuck off to figure out the smell.

Bow kept up with the arrows for a few more minutes as he wanted to make sure the Glimmer and the others were far enough. He was in a tree as he took a moment to breathe and watch the plan in action. But he did not expect to hear something rustling as he looked down and saw Catra climbing up the tree. 

“Nice play, little archer boy,” she smirked as she began to climb up and ready to take him down. 

Feeling uncertainty, Bow then shot an arrow, and it turned into a grappling hook that dragged him away from his spot. But Catra was quicker as she jumped and grabbed his foot as he pulled away, causing the rope to snap and they both fall to the ground. Bow, trying to gain control, kicked Catra’s hand and pushed her off. 

Catra grunts as she felt that kick, but she lets go as she lands on her feet and hands. Growling at him, she has a look of sheer fury. “What did you do to my friend!?” She yelled at Bow. 

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” he said as he pulled another arrow at her. 

Catra stands up as she extended her claws and flicks her tail to activate the spike at the end of it. “Then get ready to talk, with fists,” she said as she suddenly darted toward Bow.

Meanwhile, a little further from the fleet, Glimmer pants a little as she was starting to get tired of over teleporting out of danger. She leans back a little as she looks over at Adora, who was helping Maggie lean against a rock. Maggie was huffing hard as she was still in pain. Adora used the dagger to free her from the iron binds on her hands. 

“Maggie, I am so sorry, I knew about this - Well I did but didn’t- I just - I am so sorry,” Adora stuttered a little as she is at a loss for words. 

Maggie looks at her as she smiles weakly. “It’s okay,” she said as she puts a hand to her shoulder. “I know you had a duty. I do not hold it against you. But you now have a choice,” she said and coughed a little.  
Adora looks at her with sadness as Maggie then sighs and close her eyes, and her arm goes limp. Adora looks at her as she was worried that she was dying. But after hearing her steady breathing, Adora relaxed. 

“She is right though,” Glimmer said as she pushes herself up and comes over to Adora holding the dagger in her hand. “You have a choice,” she said as she tried to hide her uncertainty of trusting Adora and trusting that She-Ra will come as she promised.

Adora looks at the dagger with fear and her chest began to tighten a little. “How do you know you can trust me?”

“I don’t,” Glimmer said as she then sighed and kneeled to meet her on an equal level. “But I am choosing to take a chance on you. Only you left now, so what do you say?”

Adora, feeling unsure what to do, looks at the dagger some more. 

“You can do this Adora,” the voice was strong as Adora looked at the dagger. “Believe in yourself and She-Ra will come to you,” it said as it resonated in Adora. Taking a deep breath, Adora nods as she took the dagger from Glimmer’s hand and gripped it tightly. 

Standing up, Adora takes another deep breath and then lifts the dagger into the air. “For the Honor of Gray Skull,” Adora yells as she looks up to the sky. 

Suddenly, in that flash, Adora could feel the energy running through her like before. But this time, it felt more welcoming, like she was letting consume her every muscles and bone, causing her to shift into the woman named She-Ra. The dagger grew from its’ small form into the Sword of Protection as it brightly shined in this light. Adora relaxed into is as she felt the woman in her dream stand beside her for a moment. “You sure you want me to lead this time?” the woman asked.

“Yes, I want… I need your help,” Adora pleaded to her. 

“Alright, one more time, then,” the woman said as she shined and turned into a ball of light and entered Adora, as Adora relinquished control of her body to the spirit. 

Standing in front of Glimmer, the warrior She-Ra was here as she smiled at Glimmer. “Thank you,” she said. 

“Don’t thank me yet, miss,” she said as she pointed to Maggie, who was still in pain. 

She-Ra kneeled to look at Maggie as she sighs. “Dark magic, serious, but still curable,” she said as she waved the sword over her and a ray of light shines over Maggie. Glimmer watches as she is in awe of She-Ra’s power. 

After the light seemed to purify Maggie, She-Ra looks to Glimmer and then smiles. “No worries, I will handle this, make sure that others get out of the way, if possible,” she said as she leaped into the air and to the battle. Glimmer nods as she tries to focus.

Shadow Weaver was furious as she cast spells all over the smoke as it disappeared. Scouring for any sighs, she and the soldiers were ready to shoot whenever. Suddenly, they see the light up in the sky. They wait as it approached fast. As it landed, they all shook from the impact of the object. The gust from the impact caused the smoke to vanish and show She-Ra as she stood up proudly. 

All the soldiers look in awe and fear of what stood before them, but none were more surprised than Shadow Weaver, who almost seemed to quake in her boots. She moves back a little in fear of the light coming off of She-Ra. “You…. I thought you were… you were destroyed years ago.”

“Maybe, but I am here to fix this mess that seems to have run rampant on this planet,” she said as she aimed her sword toward Shadow Weaver. “Order your troops to let the innocent people go and leave peacefully, or I will have to put an end to this myself,” She-Ra spoke with kindness but stern words as she still had her angelic smile.

But to Shadow Weaver, she looked at the face as though she saw a ghost come back to haunt her. She moves further away. “Shoot, do not let her escape!” She commanded and began to make her way back to her air ski. 

The soldiers all watched in fear but then began shooting at She-Ra, who looked disappointed then moves her hands fast to defect the lasers shooting at her with her sword. “Guess we will have to do this the hard way,” she said as she began charging in and using the sword to block more. As she got closer to the soldiers, she jumps up high into the sky and then slams the ground hard with a kick as it caused the soldiers to fall. Some were sent flying as they lost their weapons.  
As she got back up, She-Ra heard the tanks that were beginning to warm of their cannons. She looks over as she then runs up to the gun and uses her inhuman strength to bend the barrel of the cannon up into a knot; then she pulled the two soldiers out from the control center and then jumped out of the way as the cannon knot caused the tank to explode. The soldiers were shocked by her inhuman speed and strength to do it so fast. She did the same for the cannons that were on sight. But She-Ra had to stop as some of the soldiers still shot at her and then she looks a bit annoyed. “I guess these guys do not know when to quit while they are ahead.” Jumping away from the last tank exploding, she then pulled her sword out to help her defend against the enemies still after her. 

Bow and Catra duke it out more as both are heavily panting from the brawl that they had. Catra, however, knew she could outlast him as he was running out of ammo, which was becoming more evident to Bow as he glanced back a second. In that second that he looked back, Catra took the chance to pounce on him. She tackles him to the ground and tries to claw at his face, but Bow uses his gold bow as a staff to keep her from doing so. Taking a chance, he kneed her in the gut and pushed her off.

Jumping back a little like a cat, Catra then stood up to catch her breath. “I have to say, you fight well for a weakling,” she said. 

“I can say the same to you,” he said as he prepared to fight with his bow like a staff and huffed a little. Catra steeled her claws as she then began to charge at him. 

Suddenly, her ears perk up as she stops then jumps back. Bow was confused by this act as he then heard a scream getting closer as he then yelps and dodges as he sees a Horde soldier getting flung at them. The soldier lands in a tree, but Bow still hit the ground as he looks over to see what flung him. And he smiled in relief at the sight of her. 

A glimmer off She-Ra’s battle crown hit Bow’s eyes as he was relieved to see the Amazon woman back in action. But She was making her way to one of the air skis that held the captive deer people and without a sweat, busted open the door to free them all. All other Horde soldiers run in fear as the words “Retreat,” was heard from every soldier that was not knocked out from the previous impact. Catra was confused, but then she sees She-Ra and was surprised to see that the legends were real as she always passed them off as fairy tales.

Bow smiles as he slowly gets up and looks at his opponent, who seemed distracted for a moment. He rushed over to Catra as he was going to take her out in one blow; thinking he would get prove himself a little. 

But Catra snapped out of it quickly as she looks at Bow with a fury and then jumps away and used her spike tail to hit him in the guts. It was a direct strike as he gasped at the pain then holds himself to stop the wheezing. Huffing hard as well, Catra rushes to get one more attack in against him. 

She-Ra heard this as she sees Bow and Catra’s battle. In a jump, She-Ra gets between Bow and Catra as Catra was about to punch Bow in the face. But She-Ra’s hand catches it as she looks down at Catra. 

“Little one, you do not need to fight against him,” She-Ra said as she was trying to make peace.

Catra looks at her as she bit her lips then pulled away. “Why should I listen to a crazy lady that is supposed to be a myth?”

“I may be a myth, but I know that my spirit lives on,” she said as she was still stern toward her. “You do not need to keep in that anger that you have inside you. It will get the better of you.”

Feeling like an open book for some reason, Catra grunts as she steps away. “This is not over, freak,” she said as she hopes away into the trees. But she lingers a little as she wants to see what this woman would do. 

She-Ra only watches her as she sighs and then looks back to Bow. She rests a hand on his shoulder as he regained his breath. “Are you alright?” she asks softly to him.

“Barely but I will live,” he said as he faked a smile. 

“Even so, better not take chances,” she said as she raised her sword to him and light from it consumed him as it began to heal him. Bow, starting to feel better, stands up in awe and shock about what just happened. He has a big smile as he begins to freak out over the sword. 

“Your sword can heal?! Oh man, I need to know how it works, maybe I can make something for my arrows,” he began to ramble as his mind was brimming with ideas.

“Maybe later, young Bow,” She-Ra states as she put her sword away. “Right now, we have other people to tend. Can you lead the way?” 

“Yes, ma’am,” he said as he walked back to the village remains. She-Ra followed as she glanced back at Catra’s directions and then proceeded. 

With the captive villagers returned and the people getting healed by She-Ra's Sword of Protection, the people rejoiced at the sight of the legendary She-Ra making her return. They held her hand and tried to make her stay. But She-Ra smiled as she bowed to them. 

“I am honored to have defended your home, but I must one more visit to your head chief and make sure he is alright. And you all must tend to your homes and still injured. But fear not, if anything happens again, I will make sure to help you fight,” she said as she raised her fist in a battle ready to cheer their moral. The people cheer back with her as they smiled and did as she said so and began to filter away. Bow and Glimmer were on the side as they came up to She-Ra and walk with her to the chief’s destroyed hut. 

“She-Ra,” Glimmer said. 

“Yes, Glimmer,” she said back to her. 

“Is Adora still with you?”

“Yes, she is, and she is consciously nervous about meeting with the chief again, so she opted to stay like this until after I spoke with him,” she said. 

“Why?” Bow asked. “She is technically you, right?”

“True, but as I said before, I am just the idea of She-Ra. A copy of the ones before. Until Adora can learn to take control and make her own ideas a reality, I will be a substitute,” she said as a matter of fact tone. 

“When she will be ready?” Glimmer asks. 

“When she knows her true self,” she stated again. “I will keep saying what I said before as I am only here to help her learn and guide her. Anything else, assume I will not know.” Both Glimmer and Bow nod as they sigh as they hoped they were done with their job. 

As they make it to the hut, She-Ra takes a second as she then lifts the fallen parts of the hut and pushes away some of the debris to see that the chief, the young stag leader, and Maggie were all resting beside each other. She looked at them with sadness as she knew they were in pain. She pulled her sword out one more time as she beamed the healing light on them. She focused all her energy on healing them as they were all still weak.

The cuts and bruises on them began to heal as Maggie begins to wake up. She blinks as she sees She-Ra before them, and she gasps a little. She never thought she would live to see the day She-Ra was present before them. The young stag leader woke up soon after her as he gasps for air and tries to relax. Only to gasp more in awe of She-Ra as he stayed low to the ground but then turns his attention to the chief, as he was not looking so good. 

“Come on, chief… please,” he said. 

Maggie look over as she does the same and held his weak hand. “Please, please don’t die on us… please.” She pleaded as she began to tear up. 

She-Ra’s light finishes consuming them as they wait a moment. Then the old chief groans as he wakes up slowly and turns his head to see the stag and Maggie both overjoyed with his recovering. The stag sighs with relief as Maggie continues to hold his hand tenderly and cries in it. The old stag chief then smiles as he sits up then looked at She-Ra, who sheathed her sword and then kneeled to him. 

“Great chief of the Whispering Woods, I am She-Ra, Defender of Etheria. I am humble before you,” she said to him.

The chief nodded carefully as he sighed from the pain. “I know who you are, our people have heard of your legends and always believed you would return.”

“And so, I have. But I do have one request for now: you know of the Horde soldier that you questioned was me?”

“Yes?”

“Please help keep her safe. She is a young girl with a great duty on her hands. Greater than even I can understand. Please guide her and show her the way,” She-Ra pleaded as she bowed her head to the chief. 

The chief was surprised by this request but did not say anything as She-ra bowed to him. He looks to Glimmer and Bow as they nodded as well to this. Maggie nods as she smiles, and the young stag gave a firm nod as well. 

The chief sighs as he nods. “I will do so. My people will do our best to show her the path of balance. And help her in any way we can, Lady She-Ra.”

Lifting her head and smiling back at him, She-Ra looks content. “Thank you. I know she will do great.” She spoke softly as the light faded from the body and Adora’s regular form returned. She takes a breath as she bit her lip and looks up at the chief to see if his demeanor would change.

But he did not say anything or make a sound as he bowed his head toward Adora, and the others do so as well. Adora was surprised as she brought her hands up. “Oh, no please, I did not do anything that special.”

“Far from it, Adora,” Maggie said as she looked at her with indebted eyes and happiness. “If you had not stepped in when you did, defending me, I thought I would have made it with that strong magic.” 

“You saved Maggie?” the chief and the other stag looked up in awe that Adora was the one that saved her. 

“Well, I didn’t like seeing her hurt, and I knew that the lady was not going to go easy on her,” Adora was still unsure if she should deserve the praise. 

“Still, I am grateful for you saving me,” Maggie said as she smiles.

Both of the young stag leader and the chief look at Adora with happiness as they hold back their tears a little and bow more to her. “Thank you, so much, for saving my granddaughter,” the chief said softly to Adora as he sniffles a little. 

Adora, Glimmer, and Bow all gasp as they look to Maggie. “Granddaughter?!”

Maggie chuckles as she stuck her tongue out playfully. “Guess we never did get around to telling you,” she said. 

“So, when you were all hunting in the woods?” Glimmer said.

“I was learning from my brother and how to gain experience,” she said as she pointed to the young stag as he lifted his head.

“My name is Train, officially nice to meet you both as well,” he said. 

They all look surprised. “So, we really did save your whole family,” Bow said as he remarked to the chief. 

The chief nods as he chuckles. “That you did, we are indebted to you. I can’t thank you all for your efforts. I hope to be of more help to you and the rebellion efforts.”

Adora smiles more as she nods then her eyes widen, and she begins to freak out. “Oh no, oh no. No, no no, no, this is not good.” She said. 

Glimmer and Bow kneel to her. “What is wrong?” Glimmer asks. 

“I… don’t think I can go back to the Horde…” She said as she shook a little in her spot. “I can’t go back home. Not after that, but I can’t just leave them.”

They all look at her as they are confused. “Do you want to go back?” Maggie asks her. 

Adora stops shaking as she looks at her. Maggie’s innocent looks still in her face even after the torture she went through. 

“Well, no, but I don’t want to leave all the people that I care about there,” She said as she looks down.

Glimmer and Bow hear this as they then put a hand on her shoulders. Adora flinches as she felt their hands but then looks helpless as she felt confused. 

“If they are under the Horde control, we can try to bring them over. Slowly, and maybe a lot of persuading though, but I think we can figure something out back Bright Moon,” Glimmer said to Adora. 

Bow raised an eyebrow toward Glimmer if she was sincere, but he was caught off guard by Glimmer’s look of a leader trying to make her feel better. 

Adora looks at Glimmer hopefully. “You mean it?” she asks. 

Glimmer nods. “We will try, but we will need your help as well,” she said as she then looks to the deer people as well. “We all need to help each other. And we will help you too, anyway, we can.”

Everyone nodded as they smile at her, making Adora feeling something new in her chest as she gripped her shirt. But she did not hate this feeling residing in her. Smiling a little, Adora nods as she looks happy for the first time. 

“I can try,” she said. 

Glimmer smiles as she stands up and takes Adora’s hand. “Speaking of official introductions,” Glimmer smiles. “I am Glimmer, Princess of Bright Moon.”

Adora was slow as she remembered what Maggie did for her before as she then takes Glimmer’s hand. “Adora,” she said softly, still nervous.  
Glimmer nods as she then helps Adora up on her feet. Bow then gets up as well and then offers Adora’s hand. “And I am Bow.”

“Bow and you have a bow for a weapon, that is kinda cheesy,” she said as she took his hand. 

Bow blinks then chuckle. “I guess I never thought of it that way,” he said with a smile. 

Glimmer chuckles as well as they all seem to be relaxed and calming down from the battle. 

In the trees, a bit away from the hut, hid a confused Catra as she looks at them all being buddy with each other. But what confused Catra more as she realized her friend was the Amazon woman that blocked her attack. She looked away as she reaches for her chest as she realized that Kila was right. She had lost her best friend, and she was unsure what to do. Knowing that she had to return to the Fright Zone, Catra jumps away, letting some tears fall as she hurried away. 

After some time and supplies to return to Bright Moon, Glimmer, Bow, and Adora wave goodbye to the deer people. Maggie waved the most as she hurried to Adora and gave her a communicator. 

“Here, Adora, keep this, it will help keep us in touch if you ever need some help,” she said as she smiles at her.

Adora looks at it as she smiles and nods. “Sure thing and I would like that.” 

Maggie nods. “Can I give you one last thing before you go?” she asks.  
“Sure, what is it?”

Maggie suddenly hugs her, leaving Adora unsure of what to do. “What are you doing?” She asks.

“This is a hug, it is given to people that are friends and way to say thank you,” she said gleefully. 

Adora was still unsure, but she relaxed as she slowly hugs back. “Thank you for everything, Maggie.”

“You’re welcome, Adora,” she said as she pulled away. 

Bow and Glimmer watched them as they looked pleased to see Adora opening up to Maggie. Glimmer then yawns as she was tired from all the excitement that has happened this day. Adora heard that yawn, as she then waved goodbye to Maggie again and rejoined the two. 

As they walked away, Adora is silent a little as she looks down at her dagger form of the sword. She gripped it as she felt uncertain of what her new path was going to be like for her. Glimmer focused on the map that the chief gave her that would lead them through the woods properly back to Bright Moon as Bow helped occasionally. But he noticed Adora’s quietness as he pulls back to talk with her.

“Anything I can help with?” he asks carefully as he was not sure how much she was comfortable with them. Adora snapped out of her attention to the dagger as she then sighed, putting it in the new sheath she got from Train to hold it at her hip. 

“Nothing really, just a lot to think about,” she stated anxiously but still standoffish. Bow looks at her more as she noticed he was not going to relent until she caved. Then she saw Glimmer looking back as well. She sighed more. “Fine. I guess, I always thought I knew what I wanted when I was in the Horde. And I know this is crazy, but after one day, so much happened and I turned my back on the one family I thought I knew. I have no idea what lies ahead of me anymore. I guess I am worried if I made the right choice.”

“The right choice is never the easiest,” Bow said as he looked to Glimmer at the time, who seemed to understand a little of Adora’s qualms as she looked down a bit herself, but Bow was the only one to notice. But he smiles at them both. “But I know that if we take it one day at a time, we might find what we are meant to be, right?”

Adora looks at him then chuckles. “Ever the optimist, huh?”

“That’s Bow for you,” Glimmer chimed in as she chuckles too. They all chuckle between each other and continue to talk and learn about each other. Their encouragement gave Adora some hope for the future, even with Bright Moon shining ahead of them.


End file.
